A bit of vocabulary... Hifiklub, in a handful of words, is an “open trio,” thus three individuals who share their music with the artists who inspire them: from the tetchy James Chance to R Stevie Moore, via Alain Johannes or Steven Bernstein (there would be too many to list). A very “open” trio therefore, and who practice a kind of “DIY.” Yes, DIY, like those New York trailblazers who, one fine evening in 1974, stole a stage reserved for Country, Bluegrass, Blues and OMFUG.
Now you are starting to catch on...
Let us consider a third term essential to Hifiklub’s world: the “recording studio.” Theirs is one of the strangest... No, not a Red Army nuclear shelter! Much worse: a disused nightclub, which is probably still haunted by the ghosts of a million nightclubbers on speed, and who might help our “Hifiklubbers” when the time comes to mix their new tracks: “Stand up and shake your hips, you ghosts!”
I almost forgot this last word, in order to understand their approach: “Internet.” If they are to be believed, it is not just for meeting new people for the purpose of sex, or for making a fortune on your tickets for Michael Jackson’s London concerts... Alongside these eminently noble tasks, Hifiklub uses the net to swell the ranks of their very open trio; if only for the duration of a song, or maybe more, if they hit it off... These new friends fit right into Hifiklub’s world as it is, by definition, unclassifiable, open, evolving, and fond of creative accidents.
Even though they dislike playing along with a game of “what’s your favorite record,” under duress, they will admit to owning a volume of Desert Sessions hidden in the closet, or Mike Watt’s Ball-Hog or Tugboat? under the dresser, a picture of Charles Peterson on the refrigerator, and Three Days, by Jane’s Addiction, in the cassette deck. You have been warned.
There you go, you have now learned four new words. Now it is time to make some friends!
Pierre Mikaïloff, author
