HANSEL's "Lorentzian Lineshaper" gets a load of press in recent magazines/e-zines...


HANSEL's "Lorentzian Lineshaper" album has got some good reviews so far, and here they all are in one place.  Click here to return to the main news page on the CD's track details, where to purchase the CD.


Zero Tolerance Magazine (www.zero-tolerance.co.uk)
"This could be a tricky review, as Hansel try to throw their toys out of the pram if you describe their music; the entire press release is a hissy-fit about how they are sovery unique they don't fit in anywhere. But as this is a review - making descriptions obligatory - I'll have a go, and once you get past the juvenile - and quite frankly pathetic - 'don't you dare try to tell me what I am, I'm an individual' posturing, the music is good. A diverse mix, it touches on electronica, industrial, rock and glitch, as well as the more accessible ends of the metal spectrum. If you want an idiosyncratic, well-executed, and very enjoyable album, look no further than Lorentzian Lineshaper. (3.5/6) [Review by Russell Garwood]

Graveconcerns E-Zine (www.graveconcernsezine.com)
"Massachusetts industrial hip-hop duo Hansel is back with a second full-length album, and though things are just as loud and chaotic as they ever were, there’s a more coherent vision to the music this time around. The punk ethos is still intact, but it’s better integrated with the band’s hip-hop influences now, with screamed rap vocals working with the hard breakbeat rhythms rather than against them on such tracks as "Psylents" and "Generate Humans." Turn down the distortion on "Cypress Millwood," and you’ve even got a beat funky enough to nod your head to. If the elements of Hansel’s sound are better integrated, though, they’re as eclectic as ever, if not more so. "The Death of Allen Steele," remixed here by fellow D-Trash Records artist Schizoid, crams dirty industrial metal up against jazzy rhythmic breakdowns, "Koslo (The Birth Giver)" mixes bleak trip-hop rhythms with reverb-drenched classical strings, and title track "Lorentzian Lineshaper" is like nothing so much as a Beastie Boys B-side as heard from the far side of a bad PCP trip. Then there’s the cover of Pat Benatar’s "Heartbreaker," complete with staccato violins, drum ’n’ bass snare rolls, and vocals that range from frantic breathlessness to brutal shrieking. For all the deliberate noise and confrontation, though, this is much more intellectual stuff than you might expect, and a surprising interest in such heady topics as quantum physics and astronomy makes itself known on opening track "Waking the Ghost" and the fascinating combination of synthesized cello, otherworldly chimes, and soft singing that is "The Uncertainty Principle." In many ways, this is extraordinarily violent music, but it’s certainly not dumb. If you can correctly interpret the distorted shrieks through the morass of metallic breakbeats and buzzing feedback, you might even learn something. -Matthew J.

Connexion Bizarre (www.connexionbizarre.net)
"Hansel hails from Boston, and has come a long way since their first full-length, "Respond_Violence" (2002). With a more focused and direct second album, "Lorentzian Lineshaper," the irrepressible duo of Alan Flux and M.X. Lopex have sampled, programmed and vocalized their way into an underground breakbeat mash-up of rock music meets industrial attitude that spawns quivering little 'cores all over the place. It may sound somewhat messy, but this is the intention - not to mention the price worth paying for afterbirth this tasty and chock-full of crunchy goodness. Hansel's versatile sound, ranging from gritty lo-fi to clean and lustrous, is a diverse and distinctive grafting of hip-hop, illbient, digital hardcore and old school industrial. Most notably, Hansel recollects and channels that feel of 'industrial' music that was happening well before the genre became synonymous with EBM and futurepop.
The strong vocal aspect of "Lorentzian Lineshaper" (better than their murky debut, these well-executed lyrics are lucid and in the forefront) lends the album a decidedly hip-hop imprint, a genre from which Hansel draws much of their inspiration. In opposition to that aspect, however, are crashing breakbeats and digital hardcore stylings that draw comparisons most obviously with genre legends Atari Teenage Riot. Full of vehement passion and often paranoiac, frenzied or adrenalized, "Lorentzian Lineshaper" locates itself thematically on the boundaries of post-apocalyptic desperation, a first-hand witness to the paradoxical struggle of human survival in an immeasurable and empty universe. Hansel injects its robotic atheist vision with emotional content via the integration of classical instruments and orchestrations; strings feature prominently throughout the album - for instance the excellent, anxiety-filled "Mind Control" or the forlorn and vengeful "We are Important" - and "The Uncertainty Principle" even enlists a choir of angels to substantiate its bleak saga.
Instruments are often sharp and biting in their clarity, a superbly glitchcore treatment, while vocals - from spoken to screamed - rely on distortion to push Hansel's existential agenda. From edgy drum & bass rhythms ("Waking the Ghost") to dark fractured beats (title track), buzzing bass frequencies to unrelenting snares ("Pyslents"), and grinding guitars to skittish acid ("Zlotnik [Future Mix]"), the elements that define "Lorentzian Lineshaper" layer over one another seamlessly. In one hour of album length, Hansel packs in a solid seventeen tracks. Thus song durations (the longest at five and a half minutes, the shortest at just over two) are in keeping with their self-professed goal of a traditional 'rock band' format. Perhaps to drive home their unique twist on pop sensibilities, "Heart Breaker" is in fact a Pat Benetar cover. The combination of Hansel's skeptical mindset and hybrid sound makes "Lorentzian Lineshaper" a formidable release, and its crowning touch must be the fantastic album artwork. -- Dutton Hauhart [9/10]

Ueberfall (www.ueberfall-home.de)
Hansel - Lorentzian Lineshaper:
"Nach einigen wirklich mehr als überzeugenden Download-Veröffentlichungen kommt nun das zweite Album dieser Zwei-Mann-Combo frisch aus dem Presswerk. Lange angekündigt und im Laufe der Wartezeit von einer EP bis zu einem 17-Tracks-Album angeschwollen, hat mich dieses Werk gleich beim ersten Hören komplett aus den Socken gehauen. Der Musikstil ist nach wie vor einfach Hansel, soviel steckt da drin: Hip-Hop, Hardcore-Punk, Techno, Moderne Klassik... Die Ausarbeitung der Stücke ist noch um einiges ausgefeilter und packender. Die Produktion ist perfekt und sauber ohne auch nur ansatzweise Angriffsfläche für den Vorwurf zu geben, hier würde etwas zu glatt klingen. Diese Musik strahlt Wut, Zerbrechlichkeit, Schönheit, Brutalität und Verzweiflung aus, kurzum die aufwühlende und radikale Umsetzung einer kaputten und verzerrten Welt. (D-Trash Records)"

Hansel - Respond_Violence:
"Für alle armen Schlucker soll auch eine kostenlose Scheibe hier besprochen werden. Im Bereich des Digital-Hardcores wird viel gelärmt mit Gitarren, Computern und Gebrüll. Was Hansel von ihren Kollegen abhebt ist das vielbeschworene gewisse Etwas. Gebrochene, teils verzerrte Beats treffen auf modifizierte Samples und misanthropes Gebrüll und Gesang. An der einen Stelle hört man Vivaldi, an anderer wird Public Enemy zitiert. Bei allem extremen Noise, der hier geboten wird, kommen auch eingängige Melodien nie zu kurz. Wär das Album musikalisch nur halb so radikal, wäre es längst schon zum Klassiker geworden, für mich ist es das aber bereits. Außer der mp3-Variante gibt es dieses Album auch als gepresste CD. Besucht einfach mal www.dtrashrecords.com"

HeathenHarvest Zine (www.heathenharvest.com)
"Allow me to state my prejudice form the outset: I am not a fan of bands with a beat. Nor am I particularly impressed by the whiny vocals that many of the more modern rock/nu-metal/call-it-what-you-will bands possess. But while I may write reviews without remuneration, I nonetheless feel a moral obligation to adopt professional approach, an approach that allows me to recognise decent music without having to necessarily like it.
Hansel are somewhat inexplicably signed to D-Trash, a label primarily focused on breakcore. There are some breakcore elements in Hansel’s music but that’s only one aspect of their sound, as they are a rather eclectic project and are primarily a rock band. Or at least that’s the bold affirmation the band make; bold as rocks primary instrument, the electric guitar barely features and is eschewed in favour of electronic elements. However, they do follow the traditional verse-chorus-verse structure of rock music, so the description is not entirely without merit. The music is varied, ranging from digital hardcore through to trip hop and industrial, that makes it hard to slot this band into any one category; something which they display a great dislike for. Impressively, they manage to combine this into a coherent whole; if nothing else this album flows rather smoothly despite the disparate elements that are present.
Two songs worth mentioning are a cover of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” and “The Uncertainty Principle”. It is testament to their strength as songwriters that I only picked up the former as a cover when I looked inside the CD booklet –normally a cover signals its existence by standing out dramatically from the rest of the album, either in terms of style or quality. Only more melodious verses subtly hint that Hansel are not the original songwriters.. The latter mentioned song is essentially a ballad –in style, if not approach. Just don’t expect to hear it on the radio anytime soon.
To summarise, not an album that yours truly particularly enjoyed but is one that I recommend to others who may be more interested in this style." [Review by Hoerikwaggo]

Schlendrian Magazine

RegenMag Magazine (www.regenmag.com)
"Hansel is a one man act created by Alan Fux, combining hip-hop with classical and breakbeat to create a sundry mix of dance music. Lorentzian Lineshaper is a schizophrenic mix of hip-hop, breakbeat, and classical music. The melodic strains of classical stringed instruments and skittish breakbeats sounded vaguely similar to the sounds of Aphex Twin, with the only difference being that there is a distinct hip-hop influence in the beats and vocals. Those who like their music on the loud and in-your-face style will certainly appreciate Hansel's aggressive approach to music."

Chain DLK Magazine (www.chaindlk.com)
"HAs I embark on the difficult task of attempting to review the latest CD by the Boston-based duo Hansel, I embrace my fate: I'll get flamed no matter what! The duo obviously have some serious gripe with the media who attempt to pigeonhole them into one boxed description or the promoters who try to file them under one category. So if I get the description somewhat right or accurate according to the fellow writers and reviewers, which of course could be argued is fairly relative anyway, I'll probably get shit from the band; and if I tell you that Hansel is a rock band (which is how they describe themselves to avoid any confusion) then I'll definitely get shit from the readers (since anybody that heard this record knows that Hansel doesn't share anything more than attitude and occasional distorted guitars with what you usually refer to as rock).
Hansel is a little stressed out by the situation that came into being, and you can tell from their press release and some lyrics or samples in their record. So I could comply with their desire to not be labeled, hence doing a disservice to my readers and possibly getting a few very curious readers to go and actually listen to the music online to make up their own mind (but then they'll probably illegally download the album and then the band AND the label will hate me anyway) or I can just fuck all of that political correctness bullshit and mess with my destiny by giving a shot at trying to describe a band that's actually hard to describe or file under just one category or genre in the first place.
Ultimately, I don't give a shit about getting shit, so what I'll do is I won't make any comparisons and I'll just try go give you a rough idea of what they sound like. First of all, if you are familiar with D-Trash records, think of Hansel as your non-typical D-Trash band. They implement elements of electronic music, industrial music, rhythm-noise, breakcore, glitch, rock, hop hop and what not (shall we say experimental electro-glitch-core crossover? or just e-ndustrial noise-core rock hop? just messing with you...). No matter what, it is going to be hard to give you an accurate picture of Hansel because they jump back and forth from any of the above to any other one of the above genres. This said, certain things that are actually facts could help you pin point (sort of) where Hansel stands: although they are not committed to them, they do use computers and electronics; most rhythmical/percussive material as well as most vocals are distorted; their sounds are sparse and simple at the source, but highly tweaked and saturated in complex ways; their sonic attack is minimal but aggressive and raw; they are genuine and spontaneous; they are very eclectic and across the board. If that doesn't get you any further you'll really have to go to the label's website and find out for yourself. In the meantime we want to tell the band that Chain D.L.K. loves them no matter what and we don't give a flying fuck about what the other media says about them (I haven't read a single other review of their music to try and find aid or inspiration or to try and align my views with those of others - why would I anyway?), nor do we have any expectations from them or anybody else, for that matter.
I agree with Hansel that artists should just make music and let nothing other than their own creativity mold the music they write. That said, sometimes shit sucks, sometimes shit rocks, it's all subjective in the end anyway, and so are reviews (so bands shouldn't really give a damn about what people say anyway). This said I wanna hear that triple Dolly Parton cover album now! PS I don't think I ever filed any review I wrote in as many categories at the same time! [Review by: Marc Urselli-Schaerer]

Virus-Mag (www.virus-mag.com)
"This was a tough CD to review, and even a tougher one to listen to, which is probably why I liked it so much." Hansel is Alan Fux (vocals, samples, arrangements, orchestrations) and M.X. Lopex (samples, sequences, programming). Hansel is also a clash of genres and a study of the thermodynamics of disparate sounds traversing against the grain. Pranksters and poets, Hansel is what Suicide would be today if modern computer technology was available. Little things on the CD become the crux, like the glitchcore rendition of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker”, or a sample of strings, which, I believe, were taken from W.A. Mozart’s “Requiem” mass on “Cypress Millwood”. Articulated throughout the CD is the notion of a chronic collision of molecules and galaxies, best evident on the punch and duck sequence of “Hookwormz” and “The Uncertainty Principle”, but also in the “advanced technologies developed by monkeys” lyrics expressed on the latter track. The track most resembling accessibility, “We Are Important”, collapses into the manic flyswatter infestation of “Zlotnik” and a broader pattern develops, which can only be ascertained if one is willing to sift through the chaotic data streams and listen to the many paths of sound to reach an independent conclusion.
Michael Casano, 28 Nov 2006

Goth-Tronic (www.gothtronic.com)
"Hansel is a peculiar band. They originate in Boston and can best be named a band, a rockband it is. Yet they are on a breakcore label, D-Trash. Are they not breakcore then? Yes, thereare breakcore influences for sure, as well as digital hardcore, triphop, hiphop and industrial. And also wicked atonal classical music and finally even idm Aphex Twin style. How does this sound? Well, like an explosive breakcore rockband, with not taking the term breakcore too seriously. Sometimes it really is effective such as in in ‘Waking the Ghost’ , ‘Koslo’ or ‘Hookwormz’. Public Enemy meets DJ Shadow meets Aphex Twin. Big disadvantage is though that the cd with it’s 17 tracks is pretty lengthy and therefore hard to digest fully with this music. Yet Hansel remains a peculiar band. A very original band above all. And of those there are not too many so you have to cherish this. For those who are not afraid of experiment and also like to have some power in their music, this is an interesting recording.

Side-Line Magazine (www.side-line.com)
"The new album of the Boston based Hansel is a kind of revelation to me! This duo simply combines very different style resulting in a damned explosive cocktail, which is hard to define! The vocalist’s timber of voice reminds me to Robert Smith in a rougher way while musically speaking they intermix d’n’b ingredients together with trip hop elements. This is a kind of Public Enemy on the run. Next to some real hard kicking tracks, Hansel also composes down tempo tracks. This full length is full of diversity, but never fails into stagnation. This is a surprising release moving over established styles and patterns! www.dtrashrecords.com (DP:7)DP.

Twilight Zone (www.twilight-zone.it)
Hansel rappresenta uno degli act più importanti e caratterizzanti dell’etichetta canadese D-Trash, finora produttrice di tutti i lavori del progetto di Alan Fux, a cui ha dato anche la possibilità (come in questo caso) di vedere la propria musica stampata su CD anziché su CDr, formato sicuramente più frequentato dalla rumorosa label di Toronto. La musica di Lorentzian Lineshaper è segnata dai tipici ritmi elettronici spezzati e frammentati del genere breakcore, con accelerazioni impetuose e devastanti. La matrice di Nine Inch Nails si fa sentire sia in sede di costruzione dei brani, che nella voce assai vicina a quella di Trent Reznor, ma forse ancora più prossima, in molte tracce, ai toni tremuli di Robert Smith. Tra i tanti samples fa capolino qualche graffiante riff di chitarra, mentre le sonorità rimandano ad un “Downward Spiral” dilaniato da eccessi di scosse elettriche, o ad una EBM dalle ritmiche fuori fase. Nel complesso svetta la violenza punk-hardcore di “Zlotnik”, secondo me il pezzo migliore del CD e l’unico con “cassa dritta”, senz’altro da provare nei dancefloors, servito in compagnia di qualcosa targato Alec Empire. Presenti anche due remix, uno ad opera del titolare della D-Trash Jason Smith a.k.a. Schizoid. Le derive sperimentali e dance dell’elettronica americana sono racchiuse anche in questo disco, quindi se siete interessati al genere in questione, o almeno incuriositi,gettate “un orecchio” su questo prodotto: potreste scoprire nuovi lidi. Personalmente riconosco che in Europa la breakcore più aggressiva non ha mai ottenuto il successo che ha oltreoceano, ma è doveroso dire che ormai ci sono i presupposti per una diffusione capillare anche nel vecchio continente: Lorentzian Lineshaper, con i suoi suoni accattivanti e talvolta furbetti, potrebbe addolcire la pillola! A voi la scelta. by Michele Viali [giugno 2007]

Industrial.org (www.industrial.org)
Okay, lets be honest. I usually give very little attention to press releases. Why? Because they're usually pretty boring and full of pointless false praise. I mean, I actually do read them, but I tend to glaze over the "our band is so great and this is why" bullshit and search for some useful information, of which there is normally one or two lines.
However, when I received the piece of paper that came with this new Hansel cd, not only did I read it, I re-read it a few times. Why? Because instead of a normal press release, it's a rant about how everyone in the scene who hates them due to their diversity and iconoclastic nature can basically fuck off. One line that basically sums it up is this: "Being a part of a snobby underground clique is as dumb as signing your life away to a major label contract." I have to say I agree.
This is supposed to be a review of the cd and not the damn press release, so I'll start moving on to the sounds shortly, but there is one last thing worth quoting from the release: "Boston's Hansel is a rock band." And you know, that's honestly pretty true. All of the songs on "Lorentzian lineshaper" have a very rock quality to them, complete with verse chorus verse structure and vocals. But unlike most rock acts, Hansel chose to pick up some comupters instead of more standard instruments.  And you know, the end result is pretty damn cool.
The tracks on "Lorentzian lineshaper" are pretty diverse but there are some staples to the disc for sure: Glitchy cut-up beats, beautiful symphonic melodies, cool synth sweaks and very angry vocals are all things that you can expect to hear throughout the release. At times the vocals are more of the standard DHR distorted screaming but more often than not they are actually singing in a pretty cool way. If anyone else were doing these vocals I would hate it, but this gut pring forth a real emotional drive an intensity that makes it really work.
There is an overall combination of intense experimenatism and structure on this disc that is really fucking cool. At times the focus is more subdued and glitchy, like on the opening track "waking the ghost", and at other times it's more focused on the rock and the agression, like on "the death of Allen Steele" or on their kickass cover of "Heartbreaker" (Yes, that heartbreaker), and there is even a full-ledged ballad here too ("The uncertainty principle").
The overall production on the album is very pro and smooth, with a little bit of seemingly intentional grit thrown here and there. The mixing is immaculate, and everything sounds crisp and clear. Definitely no problems on that front, or anywhere else that I see on the record. If you are ready for a kickass electronic digital rock asskicking, pick up "Lorentzian lineshaper" today.

back