Hugo Race and Michelangelo Russo are no strangers to either Hooker or the blues. Hailed as a supreme influence on the music of their band Hugo Race & The True Spirit, here the duo create a full sensory immersion in John Lee Hooker’s World Today with devastating singularity of purpose.
Recorded in a single, continuous day and night session at the Berlin studio of Boris Wilsdorf (Einstürzende Neubauten), this is an epic album of sonic sorcery suspended in time and place, looking back through twenty-first century eyes at John Lee Hooker’s delta blues legacy in a swirling mix of analogue grit and deep trance pulses.
The selection of tracks tells a story in itself; from the runaway twelve-year old boy of the desolate classics ‘Hobo Blues’ and ‘Country Boy’ to the worldly-wise elder Hooker of ‘The World Today’ (originally from Hooker ‘n Heat) and The Motor City’s Burning (a cover of Hooker’s cover of the MC5 classic), the album traces the arc of a life from pre-modernity to the Now on the 100th anniversary of Hooker’s birth.
Race and Russo’s reimagining of Hooker is simultaneously blues, electronica, avant-garde and ambient, a homage to one of the greats of rock and roll prehistory, delivered with a sting and a twist more relevant than ever to The World Today.
Release date May 19th, 2017 through Glitterhouse Records (LP) and Gusstaff Records (CD) in Europe, and MGM in Australia. Race and Russo will tour JLH’s The World Today in Europe, Oct-November 2017.
Tracklisting:
1 HOBO BLUES (Hooker) (Careers BMG Music Publishing) (6.37)
2 LOVE BLUES (Hooker) (ARC) (3.05)
3 SERVES YOU RIGHT TO SUFFER (Hooker) (ARC) (6.11)
4 DECORATION DAY (Hooker) (Jondora Music) (6.20)
5 THE WORLD TODAY (Hooker) (Universal Duchess Music Corp) (3.49)
6 THE MOTOR CITY’S BURNING (Albert Smith) (EMI Unart Cat) (6.56)
7 COUNTRY BOY (Hooker) (ARC) (6.05)
8 WHEN MY FIRST WIFE LEFT ME (Hooker) (Conrad Music) (6.00)
released September 27, 2020
Recorded June 13th, 2016 at andereBaustelle Tonstudio, Berlin
Recording engineer & additional sonic processing – Boris Wildorf assisted by Ida Gutowska
Arrangements, vocals, beats and instruments: Hugo Race & Michelangelo Russo
Post-production – Helixed Inc
Mixed by Andrew ‘Idge’ Hehir, Hugo Race & Michelangelo Russo at Soundpark, Melbourne
Mastered by Giovanni Versari at La Maesta
Cover photography by Christopher Rimmer
Liner notes by Robert Brokenmouth
Additional Styling By Alannah Hill
Publishing administered by Freibank Musikverlag
© 2017 Helixed/Rough Velvet Records
www.hugoracemusic.com