Honeysuckles is a structure of field recordings and airy instruments with HOOPS voice dead center guiding you through this world they have created in the style of musique concrète. "Honeysuckles" opens with softly wobbling electronics and an acoustic guitar being plucked into an open abyss. Here we are introduced to our narrator and the theme for the rest of the album. The title track is the story of an old man who is trying to protect his garden from children eating his flowers. A fairly straightforward story which ends in his ascension. Throughout my entire listening I could not help feeling tangled in every soundscape. "Show Me the way to that Old Oyster Bar" is definitely the most driving of the album in regards to a 'traditional' take on music. My two favorite tracks are the closers, "No Shelter for a Kitty Cat", which follows the protagonist waking up to a beautiful day. The story quickly changes when a cat greets our narrator at their window. Our narrator never gets out of bed and transcends into the body of a cat with no where to rest and no where to hide. Again, this track features various field recordings and electronics as its lead and an electric guitar guiding the melody in the background. The closing track "On the Sleepy Side of Things" is a great conclusion to this surreal experience, calmly portraying the end to these adventures for today. The album finally closes with our narrator yawning and snoring away to a drum machine as if to say goodnight.


-Julienne Pasta, Casette Gods

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Local avant-garde act Hoops brings something new and fresh to our local community with his musique concrète affinity. There’s not much of this music being produced anymore, let alone in our immediate surroundings, but Hoops keeps trekking on, and that alone should be commended. His latest release, Honeysuckles, continues this thread by presenting timbral anomalies with each track, but never steps too far outside of the realm of the experimental palette that he enjoys.

The opening track sets the tone for the rest of the album by presenting the theme that runs throughout the record. On this piece, Hoops narrates a story about children eating an old man’s honeysuckles. However, the running theme is how the story is assisted and magnified by his use of field recordings and electronic manipulation, while the more traditional instrument (acoustic guitar) simply serves to set the scene for the story that is unfolding. This “tone painting” technique is exhausted on “No Shelter for a Kitty Cat.” On this song, the use of manipulated field recordings and electronics is more brazen than in any other track on the album. The lo-fi rain and sirens samples are reminiscent of Edgard Varèse and Iannis Xenakis, but the vocal technique and the acoustic guitar ambiance are what set Hoops apart from these electronic music pioneers.

The final track on the album, “On the Sleepy Side of Things,” is the most obviously avant-garde work on this collection. The song begins with a lullaby-ish vocal melody, accompanied by an electric guitar, bass and electronic drumbeat. The song then ends with a minute of yawning and two minutes of snoring while the drumbeat continues on. This leads me to believe that a live Hoops show should be something to make an effort to attend in order to get a different musical experience that will surely verge on performance art. You can download Honeysuckles free of charge over at hoops23.bandcamp.com and continue to support our local avant-garde/experimental scene, which, due to lack of representation, could use some support from all of us.
–Arcadio Rodriguez, Slugmag



CHT041

Honeysuckles:
Words, acoustic guitar, and electronics by Hoops

Carl's Jr.:
Words and acoustic guitar by Hoops
Double bass by Pearl
Drums by Tiffany Boulanger

Saving Face:
Words and acoustic guitar by Austin Archer
Piano by Chris Bjornn
Vocals and production by Hoops

What is this an Example Of?:
Words and Electronics by Hoops
Harmonium by Nico

My Funny Valentine:
Words by Hart, Rodgers
Piano by Karim Kamar
Vocals by Hoops

Show Me the Way to that Old Oyster Bar:
Words by Hoops
Production by Neil A.

No Shelter for a Kitty Cat:
Words, electric guitar, and field recording by Hoops
electronics and oscillators by T.E.V.

On the Sleepy Side of Things:
Words and drum machine by Hoops
Guitar by Chris Bjornn
Bass by T.E.V.

Mastered by J. Boulay
Cover photo by Jeff Griffin