Dishee…

The Melbourne winter of 2020 was a reality shift and my reality unfortunately shifted with it. For decades my life had been a continuum of reckless roadtrips, missed trains, packed intercontinental 747’s, dispassionate, haunted hotel rooms and maverick promoters. For years, I never stayed anywhere for more than a few months. I was searching for something to distract myself. And then I became truly distracted…

 March 2020 challenged me to implode inwards instead of exploring outwards. I studied ancient spiritual techniques and locked myself away to brood, meditate and smoke – anything to ease the crushing ache of lockdown and the 20-cent coin I now danced upon. I missed my old life. Everybody did.

I was skeptical that meditation, chanting and searching within could produce a record. But then someone close to me went missing and my heart went missing with him, taken over by a demon. This record, Dishee, is the exorcism of that demon from both of us.

I bought a new guitar from Demonic Dishee town. The guitar was made in Japan the same year I was born and like many haunted vintage guitars contained unheard-of music waiting for the right fingers to set it free. I practiced snap freezing and distorting guitar sounds then started using the same treatments on my voice, paralyzing words mid-sentence. I inserted swathes of liquid ink into every irreverent guitar slide and vocal harmony, searching for a new sound rich with sonic grit and wild unpredictability.

And then something incredible happened. During my nightly night terrors, my Dishee murdered that child-snatching demon at a distance of forty paces with a millennium-old mantra and the practice of detachment. This record is the soundtrack of an exorcism.

Dishee – Hugo Race

So Hung       (7.33) / iAmUr   (5.41) / FOA     (3.58) / Akaal     (15.19) / Blue Pearl   (9.00)

Produced composed played by Hugo Race

Gongs on ‘Akaal’ played by Virginia Alexander / Recorded at Helixed and Sadhana Studios, Melbourne

Published worldwide by Peermusic / Sleeve art by Josh Lord / www.hugorace.com / © Helixed 2021