Hidden Persuader Hypnotizes
by earphones99
Occasionally an album will come along which oozes out of the stereo, wafts around the room and takes you somewhere familiar, but somewhere you've never been before. Hidden Persuader, the debut album from US band Hecate's Angels is one such gem. It's a slab of psychosonic sorcery just perfect for a quiet night alone with your dreams or those awkward waking hours waiting for sunrise after a night on the tiles when for some reason you just can't sleep. Named after Hecate (Heh-ca-tee), the Greek Goddess of sorcery and witchcraft, the band's sound is a kinky marriage of underworld ambience and pop, a union which manages to surprise without ever resorting to shock for shock's sake. Lead Angel, Pietra Wexstun teases an astonishing array of sounds from her organ, autoharp, melodica and theramin (that whooping, wailing instrument which leant an illicit drug buzz to Good Vibrations and saturated a trilogy of torch songs on Portishead's debut) and her lyrics boldly examine issues such as narcissistic desire, discovery and the nature of pleasure. Hidden Persuader owes much of its exotic power to its middle eastern scales which swirl around the room conjuring up images of a Sultan's lush palace filled with belly dancers, demented dervishes and a thick curtain of hookah smoke. Hidden Persuader is a lushly stimulating trip into an Orphean underworld - and you don't even have to leave home to go.
