REVIEWS

CLARK 2

2020, Shameless Records

“a celestial, addictive journey concluded with the elegiac […] urban, monotonous noises.”
– Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts

“an album of celestial electronics, alternately minimalist and maximalist and thoroughly engrossing for its entire 80 minutes”
– Philip Montoro, Music editor Chicago Reader 

“Admirable excursion that contemplates half a century of electronics of terrestrial and sidereal environments in eighty minutes”
– BlowUpMagazine

“If time looked like music, it could be close to Boris Hauf’s new album, CLARK2. The 12 titles are an immersion in a space suspended from the celestial arches of a universe larger than our imagination.
– Roland Torres

“All this scratchin’ is making me glitch.”
-Kevin Press

“It’s rare that a single album in one style can justify and maintain an 80-minute duration, especially one with such a minimalist approach as this has at times- but it’s a testament to the balance and control that’s been put into this that it really is worthy of it. It’s filmic and grandiose, yet never over the top. Brace yourself for a beautiful musical deep space science fiction adventure on this one.”
– Stuart Bruce

“I don’t know, it makes my eyes hurt.”
– Naima

CLARK

2016, Shameless Records

“A very pleasant album of a minimal and intelligent electro.”
Fabrice Allard, EtherREAL Webzine


“CLARK is full of semi-structured dangers, disco howls, cyborg jockeys and fusions of tiny percussion parts.”
Radio Nacional de España

“the re-issue on vinyl makes a lot of sense. It has a great quality and doesn’t sound dated at all, unlike some of the computer music that appeared a few years before that, the technoid music of Hauf still sounds remarkable fresh; to me it seems like a wise decision to re-issue this.”
Vital Weekly 1069 / Frans de Waard

“a seriously deep set of tracks that sound like minimal techno that’s been disassembled, then rebuilt in a slightly different order with half a dozen of the pieces missing… “Clark” is perhaps as far removed from techno as it’s possible to be whilst still being able to justify labelling it as techno, which I will, but this is an extremely deep, insular journey that benefits from focussed headphone listening. Releases like this have been appearing more frequently lately but for a 2005 release this was well ahead of the curve and its release is certainly justified.”
Chain D.L.K. / Stuart Bruce

“The Syncopated Molecules in Microwave Meals will Finally Understand”
Carnage News / Riccardo Gorone

“dry and cutting edge electronics, post-industrial techno and minimal”
Rockerilla / Roberto Mandolini

“Clark makes wonderful use of intelligence and sensations. It’s a majestic EP of conciseness and relevance, combining the multiple facets of today’s music to propel them towards a future with exciting modulations.”
Silence and Sound / Roland Torres

“Clark is rising in my estimation with every play”
Include Me Out / Robin Tomens

“post industrial minimal music”
Digital in Berlin / piradio

NEXT DELUSION

2016, Shameless Records

“THE MINIMALIST-NOISE-LISTEN TO WHAT YOU’RE DOING, DUDE, HERITAGE OF THE PAST COUPLE DECADES OF CHICAGO MUSIC MAKING IS MANIFEST IN THE SHEERING LAYERS OF DRUMS AND QUERULOUS LOW REEDS.”
BILL MEYER, STILL SINGLE

“WHEN I DIE IN THE DESERT AND THE BIRDS AND COYOTES ARE EATING MY ORGANS AND FLESH, THIS IS THE ALBUM I HOPE THEY’LL BE LISTENING TO.”
DAVID MENESTRES, ABSTRACTTRUTH

“WHAT A GREAT BIG UNHOLY SOUND!”
MAX MCCORMICK

“THESE CHICAGO MUSICIANS NOT ONLY MATCH HAUF’S AESTHETIC ORIENTATIONS, THEY LIGHT A FIRE UNDER HIS ASS.”
BILL MEYER

“NEXT DELUSION COULDN’T BE MORE OF OUR TIME.”
JESSE GOIN, CROW WITH NO MOUTH

“I’LL NEVER FORGET THE FEELING OF THE STORM’S CENTRAL EYE PASSING OVERHEAD; YOU CAN LOOK UP AND SEE THE STARS, BUT YOU DO SO WITH THE FULL KNOWLEDGE THAT YOU’RE SURROUNDED BY AN UNTHINKABLY IMMENSE PRESSURE. THIS RECORD CAN BE THOUGHT OF IN A SIMILAR WAY. THERE’S A LOT OF SPACE HERE, BUT IT’S NEVER EMPTY.”
DEREK STONE, FREEJAZZBLOG

“WHEN I TRY TO VISUALIZE THIS MUSIC, I SEE A HUGE ANIMAL THAT IS A BIT UNCOMFORTABLE ABOUT ITS SIZE, BUT WITH A VERY SENSITIVE HEART. CHARMING!”
DOLF MULDER, VITAL WEEKLY

THE PEELED EYE

2015, Shameless Records

“The interplay of the democratic The Peeled Eye is urgent, dense and heavy, bursting with impossible rushes of intensity and sheer power, as if all four musicians had tons of ideas too little studio time. Still, the frequent confrontational, violent onslaughts of Hauf, Siewert, Weber and Heather flow with great focus and tight coherence, sometimes even enjoying massive, addictive pulses, as of Sharrock’s supergroup last exit and often its raw interplay brings to mind the naked brutality of Sharrock’s last exit partner, reeds player Peter Brötzmann. But this quartet can do even more. “heavy quarters” suggests a threatening, enigmatic soundscape that can fit easily in a gory horror film. “diiiiisko” matches organically skronky noise rock with screaming free jazz and “nog” offers a delicate guitar solo between the explosive, distorted eruptions. Real shame that this is the only release of this great quartet.”
EYAL HAREUVENI, FREEJAZZBLOG

“The excellent cover art says it all: burning rubber. We’re talking flexing, throbbing, skronking, screaming jazz-noise-rock with plenty of low end. But it isn’t just chaotic blitz; there’s real, deal interplay: a becoming of one, so to speak. file next to machine gun, the Chicago of Russell and Vandermark, Borbetomagus, Sharrock and all that good stuff. Max volume, people! “
JUSTIN FARRAR

“It’s evident that the musicians gave it their all on this brash outing… the band zooms in for the kill as they aggressively tread through hazardous musical terrain amid a take no prisoners’ mode of operation.”
GLENN ASTARITA, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

“Great beginning of a hopefully long-lasting story; now shut up, play loud and feel your ass kicked.”
MASSIMO RICCI, TOUCHING EXTREMES

“What comes out of the speakers when you put the stylus down is more of a Godzilla tap-dance. … the meaty satisfaction dealt by The Peeled Eye suggests that free improv apprenticeship is a worthy pre-rock tutelage.”
BILL MEYER, DUSTEDMAGAZINE

“The Peeled Eye creates music that is greater than any one of the four. More soon, please, Shameless.”
JOHN EYLES, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

“This is not just a hell of noise, but free rock at his best.”
DOLF MULDER, VITAL WEEKLY

“It’s as though these four musicians are applying a vast electric current to the primordial ooze of their songs, using their considerable energy to assemble an embryonic precursor of horn-fronted instrumental noise rock.”
PHILIP MONTORO, CHICAGO READER

“Together four notorious engineers design a vehicle of a different kind. no frills. sleek design. schematic without hierarchy: rhizome electronics. Freejazzsax gearbox. In three seconds from zero to twelve tones…no more space for vanities. In this dark miracle musical ride.”
STEROID, FREISTIL

articles

RHIZOMORPHE BIOTOPE DER FANTASIE

Interview MICA 2014

Boris Hauf Sextet – 2012

Proxemics (Hauf/Hess/Jackson/Juun) – 2012

Postmarks – 2012

Critic’s Choice – Chicago Reader March 2005

Critic’s Choice – Chicago Reader March 2002

Clark

Soft Left onto Westland

misc

efzeg