Hugo Largo - Post dream-pop

Hugo Largo are one of the most overlooked bands in rock history. They appeared suddenly on the American independent scene, and just as suddenly vanished without a trace, leaving behind only two albums of extraordinary value and beauty. Around the mid-80s, American indie-rock was going through a moment of great renewal, if not outright revolution. New York was driving the cart of new alternative rock, putting forward a series of bands that made artistic noise their raison d'être; first Sonic Youth, then Royal Trux and Cop Shoot Cop managed to translate into music the neuroses, obsessions and alienation of city life, just as the Velvet Underground had done a few decades earlier. At the same time, Jesus Lizard in Chicago, Minutemen in Los Angeles and Fugazi in Washington (and there were others still) laid down the coordinates of post-hardcore, which would later evolve into post-rock. By contrast, Hugo Largo seemed to offer a quiet, dreamlike sound, an American counterpart to dream-pop, isolated and without roots or connections, and for that reason as fascinating as it was inconsequential - though that wasn't quite the whole story.

The line-up already looked innovative in its instrumentation alone: two basses, Tim Sommer, a music critic who had worked with Glenn Branca, and Adam Peacock, plus Hahn Rowe (later with Tod Ashley in Firewater) sketching out delicate violin melodies. On vocals was Mimi Goese, a disciple of Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley, a bewitching siren in the mould of Elizabeth Fraser and Lisa Gerrard. Goese's voice, elegant and evocative, is a genuine added instrument, able to become one with the sonic flow, while the guitar appears on some tracks, though almost always in the background.

The charm and originality of Hugo Largo's music actually stems from a strong contrast between the various elements that make up the band's sonic fabric: the rumble of the basses and the (occasional) chiming of guitar on one side, the icy elegance of the violin and Mimi's warm vocals on the other.

Just as the former, through their robust timbre, cage the sound in an earthly dimension, directly evoking the imagery of a new-dark-wave rock band, so Goese's singing seeks to transcend it, lifting the sound to states of mystic ecstasy, with the violin falling into step with the voice in a crescendo of metaphysical intensity. It is from this ongoing struggle, from this blend of "bodily" and supernatural elements (exemplified in "Screm Tall", to name one), of minimal touches and celestial digressions, from the Velvet Underground pulling things down to earth and Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley gazing skyward, that the distinctiveness of Hugo Largo's music is born - part atmospheric, part austere, spiritual yet also immanent. This is the main difference between the New York band and the dream-pop outfits (Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Slowdive), who crafted a sound specifically designed to evoke dreamlike, surreal atmospheres bordering on ambient music.

Hugo Largo are much closer instead to the Popol Vuh of "Hosianna Mantra", given their approach to composition, which seems to take improvisation as its starting point. They begin with a barely sketched melodic line, usually a sturdy bass phrase that sets the rhythm and gives the piece its linearity, while the voice and violin warble freely, searching for a landing place in the vault of the sky. Goese, in particular, shapes her vocal interpretation through a series of evocative shifts in register, with intonations that are constantly changing, yet always in harmony with the rest of the sonic framework. Chance pervades these compositions, as in the finest tradition of rock avant-garde.

Drum came out in 1987, as did "White-Out Conditions" by Bel Canto, while "Spirit Of Eden" by Talk Talk came out the following year.

Drum, produced by Michael Stipe of R.E.M., is pure emotional vertigo, disorientation within the sonic flow, obsessive elegance and the evocation of an ancient epic directed toward the unfathomable, toward the absolute - a Gregorian chant for a rock band (somewhat like Dead Can Dance). "Grow Wild" opens with a series of minimalist variations that repeat in circular fashion, until the entrance of the strings, which gently cradle Goese's wandering meditation. "Eskimo Song" continues along the same lines, between tolling bass and chiming bells, immersing the vocals in a dark, anguished atmosphere, much like the finest litanies of Nico.

The cover of "Fancy" (Kinks) shows the bond linking Hugo Largo to Dead Can Dance, in terms of a trans-global folk steeped in Eastern-tinged mysticism. Velvet Underground-style progressions and iterations run through "Screm Tall", with distant guitar arpeggios weaving in discreetly, while voice and violin struggle desperately to free the sound from its bodily dimension. The lazy, country-tinged instrumental interplay makes Hugo Largo the dream-pop equivalent of Galaxie 500, while the martial stillness of "Second Skin", enlivened by Goese's high notes, accentuates the similarities with the later sound of His Name Is Alive's "Livonia". A virtually flawless record, Drum reveals a new way of making rock music: stream-of-consciousness rock, with melodies, arrangements and solos that float freely (even within tracks of an average 4-5 minute length), in a psychological quest for an ancestral space-time.

Two years later, Hugo Largo released Mettle, an album that in some ways even surpasses their debut. The songs move at a slower, more contemplative pace, woven into an ambient filigree with a new-age feel. "Turtle Song", which opens the record, is superb, an animated track (in the vein of "Screm Tall") that bears witness to the dichotomous contradiction at the heart of Hugo Largo's sound, part atmospheric, part earthbound. With "Hot Day" begins a journey into a dimension that struggles to settle into song form. Where the previous album hinted (however faintly) at pop structures, the harmonies of Mettle rest on the interlocking of sonic haze and celestial wailing, with the ever-present bass providing linearity and keeping the sound from collapsing in on itself. Proof of this is the majestic "Halfway Knowing", where the spiritual breath of Popol Vuh flirts with the icy martial quality of Dead Can Dance; Hugo Largo's "Song To The Siren" is both disorienting and dreamlike. In "Brothers" it's the guitar that leads the dance, with a light, poignant melody, while the strings materialize sonic ectoplasms of growing intensity toward the end of the track, as Goese's vocals climb higher. Another high point of the record is "Jungle Jim", moving and absorbed, intense and elegant at once. Mettle manages the feat of reaching the same heights as Drum, while adding fresh elements of originality to an already highly personal sound.

At this point the band's adventure comes to an end, and to hear an album that could be traced back to Hugo Largo we have to wait until '98, when Luaka Bop releases Soak, Mimi Goese's solo album, produced by David Byrne, with contributions from Hector Zazou and Hahn Rowe. Not remotely comparable to the delights of the main band (in terms of sound and quality), and while it's overall a good record, Soak turns out to be overly beholden to the fashionable sounds of the time, trip-hop in particular and its offshoots.

Mimi's vocal class is beyond question, but folded into a post-industrial-era sound it loses some of its charm, as in "Milky Way", which sounds like listening to a slightly more ethereal version of Bjork.

Muscles clearly on display in "Piece Of Cake" and "I spy", like Nine Inch Nails overdosing on lush arrangements, with no sharp edges, all rounded, harmless guitars. More seductive is "Fire And Roses", with electronic sounds materializing out of nowhere and Mimi's sing-song delivery lulling the listener into a kind of narcolepsy. Nocturnal psychedelia and jazzy electronics fill out "Believer", offering what is, if anything, an even more hypnotic take on Laika. While "Watch" is crystalline pop with barely-whispered arrangements, the album delivers its last significant track with a cover of "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden, on which Mimi recites in a vacuum-sealed near-whisper, turning a song already abundantly visionary in its original version into something even more hallucinatory.

If Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil (in their various incarnations) focused their experimentation on the pursuit of a stylistic perfection in which form is the dominant element, Hugo Largo instead started from content, in the guise of a powerful sonic narrative that explores the subconscious, aiming to bring ancestral sensations to the surface, and only afterwards arriving at the outward sonic form suited to conveying them.

Hugo Largo's almost chamber-music-like sound influenced those bands (Rachel's, A Silver Mt. Zion, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, etc.) that sought to push beyond the boundaries of the standard rock song format by bringing in instrumentation and compositional methods drawn from classical music. Post-rock before post-rock was institutionalized, too far ahead of their time, too refined to be fully decoded, too good to be overlooked. Two albums, seventeen songs in all, are enough to establish that the evolution of rock music owes something to Hugo Largo too.

After Hugo Largo broke up, Tim Sommer stayed in the music world, collaborating with artists of widely varying stylistic backgrounds, from Duncan Sheik to the Beastie Boys, and also producing the first recordings of Kara's Flowers, who would soon become far more famous under the name Maroon 5.

Hahn Rowe also went on to a successful career as a musician, contributing to Mimi Goese's solo album Soak, as well as working with Bill Laswell, Antony and the Johnsons, and Yoko Ono, before turning to composing for film and theater.

After her sole solo effort, Mimi Goese began collaborating with other artists, until she met Ben Neill, forming an interesting artistic partnership.

Their first project as a duo didn't arrive until 2011, Songs For Persephone, an album that brings together music, visual art and theater with bold crossovers between dream-pop, jazz, lounge and hip-hop.

Unfortunately, the follow-up required yet another long wait, with nine years passing before Ben and Mimi returned with a new album, Life You Are, which trades some of their experimental verve for a more consistently solid dream-pop and chamber-folk sound, featuring a splendid version of "Ocean Rain" by Echo & The Bunnymen and refined, ethereal folk-jazz ballads in a chamber-pop vein, lavishly arranged by the ever-faithful Ben Neill and his mutatrumpet, along with an exceptional guest, David Van Tieghem.

(Contributi Marmoro Gianfranco “Songs For Persephone”, “Life You Are”)

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google