Wendy Gondeln and Mats Gustafsson, with Wolfgang Voigt and Martin Siewert

The Shithole Country & Boogie Band

In 2018, Mats Gustafsson provided raw saxophonic material for the elusive Wendy Gondeln, who sometimes applied a scalpel, sometimes a pneumatic drill, to rework, remix, reimagine all the Swede’s squeaks, pops, blats, and tones. In some places, Gondeln adds violent violin to thicken the roux, making Ornette’s fiddling seem like Yehudi Menuhin. Uncommon bedfellows: disjunct techno and improvised music. But the Shitholes make it work brilliantly, even inviting minimal techno pioneer and co- founder of Cologne’s seminal Kompakt label Wolfgang Voigt to edit and remix two of the twisted tracks. The CD’s other guest star, engineer Martin Siewert, contributes guitar and lap top guitar to a couple of tracks. Not your usual any kind of music, The Shithole Country & Boogie Band bends genres and upends style. Spasmodic dance music or highly conceptual experimental sound art – it’s a thin line Gondeln and Gustafsson tread on these eight diverse tracks, but an irresistibly fun one, too.

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