Hunger

Moving further from the ragged roots-influenced music that first made his name, Dan Melchior delivers a set of raw, physically powerful lo-fi tunes on 2014's Hunger. While the set is credited to Dan Melchior und Das Menace, Melchior handles all the vocals and instruments on ten of the album's 12 songs, and the music has the heavy, obsessive tone of a one-man project. On Hunger, Melchior revels in distortion and low-budget electronics, with practically everything pushed into the red zone on most tunes as Melchior ponders technology ("A Wizard Doesn't Need a Computer"), need ("Hunger"), human relationships ("Parakeet"), conformity ("Rip It to Pieces"), and footwear ("Her Incredible Shoes"). Even lighter numbers like the closing cover of Kevin Ayers' "Town Feeling" wear their low-tech attack on their sleeve, and Melchior's primitivism makes for a curious but effective complement with his rugged but thoughtful lyrics. One of the most remarkable things about Hunger is that it was compiled from unreleased recordings dating from 2008 to 2011 -- this material certainly sounds like it was recorded in one fell swoop, and perhaps the function of the Das Menace moniker is to reinforce the unified sound and vision of this music. Hunger is Melchior's first album for Castle Face Records, the label run by John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees, and it's easy to see why Dwyer would be attracted to this side of Melchior's musical personality, given the fusion of smarts, simple but effective melodies, and a creative application of cheap technology. Hunger is a long way from the brokedown blues of his early work and his collaborations with Holly Golightly and Billy Childish, but the soul is still there, and this stuff communicates with clarity and force. ~ Mark Deming