New Music: Thoel Simérville - Singer-Songwriter Demos Vol. 1

So a special treat crash landed over the weekend, and as excited as I was to listen to it I felt like I just had to help promote it. Thoel Simérville is the collaboration between Australia's number one dark folk rap poet Thorts (Sommerville), and Sweden's number one noise and folk hop producer / rapper Joel Siméus. Hence Thoel Simérville. Pretty clever right?

The result is quite the strange experience. We have here an album born of anxiety, anger and paranoia, lightly laced with a rather twisted sense of humor. Thorts finds himself working with production and a vocal style from Joel that allows him to be free of the constraints he's often faced in the past, when his rap while often undeniably good, did not do much to venture beyond the bounds of what others had done before. Basically just good somber folk influenced hip hop with personal and emotional themes. Fairly serious.

Here we get a real glimpse of the man who recently released a free promo EP with production "jacked" from Haunted Days & Witches Teat, hence the title Jacked Off a Ghost. Thorts is a bit of a weirdo with a willingness to be whimsical in a vaguely sick and dark manner. Not a bad thing at all, and Joel's influence seems to have opened the door to that in a big way. Songs swing wildly from dark ambient static to carnival sounding craziness, and Thorts manages to match Joel and keep these songs interesting. It also allows the album to blend together, almost the nonsensical dreamlike experience of sleeping with a Nicotine patch on. You may know what I mean.

Sonically the production is almost a cross between Joel's work with Milled Pavement and his more current catalogue with empty space. We have both the industrial, noise and discordant quality along with his deep voiced Swedish raps that reminds me of his more recent material, along with some acoustic and melodic work that seems to be a revival of some of what he did with Decorative Stamp. Fans of either label should find something to enjoy here. Often these sounds can be found on the same track as the two rappers trade English and Swedish lyrics about (I don't speak Swedish unfortunately but I can speak on what Thorts is rapping about) mental illness, emotions and world politics.

The demo like quality in some places makes me feel a bit like they haven't tried to take themselves too seriously, and depending on what you're looking for from Thoel Simérville that could be a good or a bad thing. There's a very left field, stream of consciousness feel to these songs, and in certain places it makes them difficult to listen to (the repeated use of the c-word on "Är Det Dåligt" is unnecessary, yeah Trump sucks, anyone who matters is aware of this. Useful commentary in this instance is more appreciated than name calling, and I absolutely know Thorts is capable of that).

That said, this album is good for what it is. Two artists stretching their creative muscles and enjoying the experience without too much concern for sounding a certain way. You'll either like this or absolutely hate it. Fair warning, I like it but then I love Babelfishh and those folks so...

Get Singer-Songwriter Demos Vol. 1 from Thorts himself here, or on Joel's empty space collective Bandcamp as an extremely limited cassette with exclusive artwork here.