After cutting his teeth as a member of indie luminaries
Tarentel and
Thingy,
Kenseth Thibideau decamped to his home studio, where, with the aid of
Dilute's
Marty Anderson and
the Court and Spark's
Wendy Allen, he conceived
Howard Hello. Afforded a low-key release on the reliable
Temporary Residence label, this eponymous debut is one of the most startling discoveries of 2002 -- an
ambient record with presence, a
folk record with teeth. Featuring
John Fahey-style acoustic pluckings,
Anderson's broken, gulping vocals, and some beautiful digital mulching,
Howard Hello is equal parts celestial tone poem and woodchipped
glitchcore. In just three minutes, opening track
"Television" sets the table --
Thibideau fingerpicks a rustic acoustic melody, runs it through a digital sieve, and reassembles the pieces on the right side of a spacious
field recording. Elsewhere,
"Belief" pits his processed arpeggios against a wall of church organ and breathy female vocals,
"Dream" sees a gentle guitar coda mutate into a wash of
ambient pads, and the uneasy
"America" uses
Anderson's sickly croak to goosebump-inducing effect. Simultaneously pacifying and unnerving, and still very much more than the sum of its considerable parts,
Howard Hello is a rare gem. ~ Mark Pytlik
![Bad Blood X [10th Anniversary Edition]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0602455652812_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Bad Blood X [10th Anniversary Edition]")
