Hypno-Coin – High Tension
[2023]
No She Never – Required Etiquette – Bomber – London Dungeon – Jet-Engine Supperclub – La Cumbanchera
Hypno-Coin: Behind this name hides Jake Yergs, who has recorded and played all the instruments. Hypno-Coin is not your run-of-the-mill Rock’n’Roll band and is definitively not for purists of any kind. Yergs creates his style by mixing a wide array of influences.
No She Never, the opening track is a middle pace tune, a bit wonky, that sounds like a Rockabilly rendition of Tom Waits, with gritty sound on the vocals and the electric guitar. Next is Required Etiquette, an atmospheric Blues that is almost creepy in places.
If you’re interested in lo-fi, you may remember a band called Doo-Rag; you can find a trace of this band in Hypno-Coin’s rendition of Motorhead’s Bomber. After an intro that makes you think of a post-punk/early New-Wave band of the 80s, London Dungeon evolves into a Dark Country tune. As an Angelo Badalamenti fan, I really enjoyed Jet-Engine Supperclub, which sounds a bit like the Twin Peaks theme but as if a mean and wicked Rock’n’Roll gang played it. With its disturbing sax, heady riff, and different layers of music, La Cumbanchera also sounds like film music. This instrumental has strong evocative power and brings forth in the listener’s head images of a potential B series, which we like to imagine is a tad dirty.
I’m not sure a physical copy of that excellent mini-album exists, but you can stream it on YouTube and Apple Music.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis