PJ Harvey

The Hope Six Demolition Project (15 April 2016)

   ^{PJ Harvey — The Hope Six Demolition Project (15 April 2016)}♠  Harvey získala pověst výstřednosti, aby odpovídala její hudbě. Její texty byly vždy vyhloubeny vnitřním prostorem a divokou stranou ženské zkušenosti. Výzkumné cesty do Washingtonu, Kosova a Afghánistánu poskytly pomyslný oltář pro silně evokující, ale také rozhodně nejednoznačné album. Nemuselo být tolik humbuku kolem a zřejmě výsledek by byl stejný, ne–li lepší. Název alba je odkazem na projekty HOPE VI ve Spojených státech, kde kvůli veřejnému mínění o obecním bydlení v oblastech s vysokou mírou kriminality bylo zbouráno mnoho domů, aby prostor byl využit pro lepší bydlení, ale s tím, že mnoho předešlých obyvatel si už nemohlo dovolit tam žít, což vede k tvrzení o sociální očistě.  “The Hope Six Demolition Project” je více o smyslu pokračování tohoto uspořádání i v rozšířeném uplatnění, které historicky jednoznačně selhalo: zlomená, neuspořádaná zeměkoule, překypující životem a katastrofy jedna za druhou, selhání starověkých kultur, nové války a staré rány. Zločinci jsou hrdinové, nevinné oběti anonymní. Album tvoří to jakési stylové puzzle, ne bezvýznamné, naopak nutící více a do hloubky přemýšlet o sobě samém v relaci k celku. Se sílou aspirace zavrtat její myšlenkový tok nápadů do vaší hlavy. Album má značné slabiny hudebně i autorsky: jedna z nich vyplývá z poslední písně “Dollar, Dollar”: je přízračná úzkostným vyjádřením, že ‘její auto se rozjede dříve, než ona může dát peníze na hladovějící dítě’. Výmluvné je, že je to jediná píseň napsaná z vlastního pohledu, což naznačuje, že její závazek k přijaté roli jako pozorovatelky, že projektu dobře poslouží — okrádá její potenci na nejlepší dílo. Ale přesto výsledkem je další ohromující album. Bezkonkurenčně právě toto systematické třídění nikdo jiný nedělá, nebo by snad mohl dělat, kdyby na to měl kapacitu. Cítíte, že toto album je součástí probíhajícího forenzního vyšetřování civilizace, uchvácené do rukou pár arogantních jedinců, ne cílem samotným. Naštěstí, hudba samotná má vysokou úroveň, kdy posluchač cítí komfort až na úrovni samotné záchrany svého duševního zdraví, protože s PJ Harvey sdílí svůj díl sounáležitosti. Přes všechny měnící se způsoby, podoby a struktury alb, Harvey zůstává jediná svého druhu. Nedořekla jediné: tato civilizace ztratila právo na řešení, poslední slovo už řekla a čeká jí náhlá demolice. Řešení je mimo lidskou sféru, o tom bylo rozhodnuto dávno předtím, než se stovky generací před PJ Harvey vůbec narodily.
Birth name: Polly Jean Harvey
Born: 9 October 1969, Bridport, Dorset, England
Notable instruments: Gretsch Broadkaster, Gibson Firebird VII, Eastwood Airline ‘59 Custom EP, Oscar Schmidt electric autoharp (12 bar)
Notes: Harvey was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to music.
Album release: 15 April 2016
Recorded: 16 January 2015–14 February 2015
Studio: Somerset House, London, United Kingdom
Genre: Alternative rock, indie rock, neo–psychedelia
Record Label: Vagrant / Island
Duration:     41:44
Tracks:
01. The Community Of Hope     2:23
02. The Ministry Of Defence     4:11
03. A Line In The Sand     3:33
04. Chain Of Keys     3:09
05. River Anacostia     4:56
06. Near The Memorials To Vietnam And Lincoln     2:59
07. The Orange Monkey     2:47
08. Medicinals     2:19
09. The Ministry Of Social Affairs     4:10
10 The Wheel      5:37
11 Dollar, Dollar     5:37
♠  All songs written and composed by PJ Harvey.
♠  Producer: Flood, John Parish, PJ Harvey
Credits:
♠  Adam “Cecil” Barlett Bass, Engineer, Guitar (Bass), Mixing Engineer, Vocals (Background)
♠  Jean–Marc Butty Percussion, Vocals (Background)
♠  Rob Crane Design, Layout
♠  Caesar Edmunds Mixing Engineer
♠  Terry Edwards Flute, Guitar, Harmonic Bass, Keyboards, Melodica, Percussion, Sax (Baritone), Saxophone, Vocals (Background)
♠  Flood Mixing, Producer, Sonics, Synthesizer Bass, Vocals (Background)
♠  Enrico Gabrielli Clarinet (Bass), Percussion, Swanee (Slide Whistle), Vocals (Background)
♠  Mick Harvey Bass, Guitar, Handclapping, Keyboards, Pedals, Percussion, Slide Guitar, Vocals (Background)
♠  PJ Harvey Autoharp, Composer, Guitar, Handclapping, Harmonic Bass, Primary Artist, Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor), Violin, Vocals
♠  Michelle Henning Art Direction, Artwork
♠  Alain Johannes Guitar, Handclapping, Keyboards, Percussion, Saxophone, Vocals (Background)
♠  Linton Kwesi Johnson Vocals
♠  James Johnston Guitar, Keyboards, Organ, Violin, Vocals (Background)
♠  Rob Kirwan Engineer
♠  Jerry McCain Composer, Primary Artist
♠  Seamus Murphy Photography
♠  John Parish Accordion, Autoharp, Electronic Winds, Guitar, Guitar (Baritone), Handclapping, Keyboards, Mellotron, Percussion, Producer, Synthesizer Bass, Vocals (Background)
♠  Kenrick Rowe Guitar, Handclapping, Percussion, Vocals (Background)
♠  Drew Smith Mixing
♠  Mike Smith Handclapping, Keyboards, Percussion, Piano, Sax (Baritone), Saxophone, Vocals (Background)
♠  Alessandro Stefana Guitar, Vocals (Background)
♠  The Hope Six Demolition Project draws from several journeys undertaken by Harvey, who spent time in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington, D.C. over a four–year period. When I’m writing a song I visualise the entire scene. I can see the colours, I can tell the time of day, I can sense the mood, I can see the light changing, the shadows moving, everything in that picture. Gathering information from secondary sources felt too far removed for what I was trying to write about. I wanted to smell the air, feel the soil and meet the people of the countries I was fascinated with , says Harvey.
♠  The album was recorded last year in residency at London’s Somerset House. The exhibition, entitled Recording in Progress saw Harvey, her band, producers Flood and John Parish, and engineers working within a purpose–built recording studio behind one–way glass, observed throughout by public audiences.Review
By Cosette Schulz, Published Apr 13, 2016; Score: 9
♠  Putting together The Hope Six Demolition Project must have been quite the ordeal: it involved inspiration from trips to Kosovo, Washington, D.C. and Afghanistan with photographer Seamus Murphy, and was recorded publicly as an art installation aptly titled Recording in Progress, where audiences were invited to witness the birth of Hope Six at London’s Somerset House and gaze at the band through one–way mirrors as they played, performed and recorded. It was a decision that evokes the themes of this record: Harvey herself became a spectacle to scrutinize, just as Hope Six evokes the idea of observation from an outsider perspective, describing events but not having any impact upon them.
♠  Compositionally, Hope Six is gorgeous, and features some of Harvey’s best melodies yet. Perhaps because she worked with the same producers, it shares a sonic atmosphere with 2011’s Let England Shake, making it sound something like a sister album to that release. Her voice, characteristically haunting and piercing, is pronounced and shining here, exuding strength on “Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln,” wavering in delicate falsetto on “A Line in the Sand,” snarling commandingly on “Medicinals” and whispering eerily on “River Anacostia.” Harvey’s vocals are at the forefront of every track here, fattened up with reverb and layered backing vocals, reinforcing the notion of community, empathy and inclusiveness that Harvey seems to wish was more constant in this world.
♠  The jangly blues stomp and saxophone skronk of “The Ministry of Social Affairs” skewers neo–Capitalism by flipping Barrett Strong’s “Money, That’s What I Want,” while the heavy–hitting “The Ministry of Defence” has a military feel to it, thanks to rolling snares and chants that also complement the call–and–response, repetitive vocals of “Chain of Keys.” “Medicinals” personifies the witch hazel and sumac that once grew where concrete now lies, as Harvey considers nature’s power and omnipresence.
♠  That said, there’s a pervasive, troubling sense on this record that we’re often getting mere descriptions of the horrors Harvey saw on her various travels, rather than challenges or emotional reaction. She sings that “They’ve sprayed graffiti in Arabic, and balanced sticks in human shit” on “The Ministry of Defence,” tells of a boy begging for money on “Dollar, Dollar” and asks on “Medicinals,” “Do you see that woman sitting in the wheelchair? With her Redskins cap on backwards…from inside a paper wrapper she sips from a bottle, a new painkiller for the native people.”
♠  It raises the question often posed of journalism: At what point does one step in and intervene, rather than simply observing and reporting? Harvey addresses this, if subtly, on “The Orange Monkey” — “I took a plane to a foreign land, and said ‘I’ll write down what I find” — and on “A Line in the Sand,” when she sings that, “What I’ve seen, yes, it’s changed how I see human kind.”
♠  Throughout, The Hope Six Demolition Project is observational yet impartial, wanting to help yet feeling helpless. It’s just art, and Harvey seems to know that, so though this majestic album confronts the harsh realities and truths of the world in a medium most can grasp, she seems to wonder, as I imagine we all do, what can be done besides penning a poem or singing a song.
♠  In this way, “The Hope Six Demolition Project” implicates all of the Western world’s complacency, making for a complex and challenging, though gorgeous, listen. ♠  http://exclaim.ca/
Also:
By Andrzej Lukowski April 11th, 2016;  Score: 8
♠  http://drownedinsound.com/releases/19365/reviews/4149956
By Laura Snapes, APRIL 14 2016; Score: 7.6
♠  http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21698-the-hope-six-demolition-project/
Discography:
♠  Dry (1992)
♠  Rid of Me (1993)
♠  To Bring You My Love (1995)
♠  Dance Hall at Louse Point (with John Parish) (1996)
♠  Is This Desire? (1998)
♠  Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000)
♠  Uh Huh Her (2004)
♠  White Chalk (2007)
♠  A Woman a Man Walked By (with John Parish) (2009)
♠  Let England Shake (2011)
♠  The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016)
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PJ Harvey

The Hope Six Demolition Project (15 April 2016)

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