HIRO KONE
Hiro Kone is a New York based musician and producer: a multi-instrumentalist, who studied classical music as a child but abandoned her violin training to play guitar in punk bands as a teenager. Currently, she uses a combination of hardware, synths, and modular to cultivate her sound. She released her first self-titled EP, co-produced with Tim Dewit (Gang Gang Dance) on the since defunct label Bitterroots in 2012. Following this, she released two EPs back to back in 2014. “The Unmoved Mover” (Group Tightener) envisioned the factions and movements in the human psyche and soul from an indivisible prime source. “Fallen Angels” (Geographic North) sourced Mao’s earliest memories of childhood in Hong Kong, repurposing vibrant fragments of the past through a disorienting array of sonic imagery.
"Love is the Capital" is her debut LP, bringing with it some of her most emotionally and politically driven work yet. It is Hiro Kone's long coming opus, examining a number of all-too-relevant themes: capital, the state, egoism, anxiety, and steadfast optimism. The eight songs on "Love is the Capital" highlight Mao's austere, politicized techno battling for the greater good. Songs are visceral meditations of rhythm, noise, and melody, in the vein of Pan Sonic, Chris & Cosey, Muslimgauze, and Kangding Ray. The taut techno, industrial minimalism, and aural upheaval is embedded in tracks "Rukhsana" (featuring Drew McDowall formerly of Coil & Psychic TV, on modular synthesizer), "The Place Where Spirits Get Eaten," and "Less Than Two Seconds," an emotionally wrought blitz of serrated Monomachine tones flanked by timeless recordings of essayist, poet, and social writer James Baldwin. Mao ventures deep into heady, prismatic runs of hypnotic techno; the album maintains a sense transformation, burdened with an alien tension — the awareness of an impending and necessary collapse. And what may come next.
She has participated in several collaborations, including a live score for Cinema 16 at The International House of Philadelphia (2012), “A Raga for Moog and Violin” with Arp (Geographic North, 2016), and for David Van Tieghem x 10 “Fits and Starts” (RVNG Intl, 2013). She has been collaborating with Little Annie Anxiety (Crass, Coil) to reimagine Annie’s first two albums “Soul Possession” and “Jackamo” live for the Dais Records 10 Year Anniversary in New York City.
Hiro Kone's close collaborator is Drew McDowall - their collab album "The Ghost Of Georges Bataille" will be released by Bank Records this Spring. Her next solo album is scheduled to be out on Dais Records in August.
"Love is the Capital" is her debut LP, bringing with it some of her most emotionally and politically driven work yet. It is Hiro Kone's long coming opus, examining a number of all-too-relevant themes: capital, the state, egoism, anxiety, and steadfast optimism. The eight songs on "Love is the Capital" highlight Mao's austere, politicized techno battling for the greater good. Songs are visceral meditations of rhythm, noise, and melody, in the vein of Pan Sonic, Chris & Cosey, Muslimgauze, and Kangding Ray. The taut techno, industrial minimalism, and aural upheaval is embedded in tracks "Rukhsana" (featuring Drew McDowall formerly of Coil & Psychic TV, on modular synthesizer), "The Place Where Spirits Get Eaten," and "Less Than Two Seconds," an emotionally wrought blitz of serrated Monomachine tones flanked by timeless recordings of essayist, poet, and social writer James Baldwin. Mao ventures deep into heady, prismatic runs of hypnotic techno; the album maintains a sense transformation, burdened with an alien tension — the awareness of an impending and necessary collapse. And what may come next.
She has participated in several collaborations, including a live score for Cinema 16 at The International House of Philadelphia (2012), “A Raga for Moog and Violin” with Arp (Geographic North, 2016), and for David Van Tieghem x 10 “Fits and Starts” (RVNG Intl, 2013). She has been collaborating with Little Annie Anxiety (Crass, Coil) to reimagine Annie’s first two albums “Soul Possession” and “Jackamo” live for the Dais Records 10 Year Anniversary in New York City.
Hiro Kone's close collaborator is Drew McDowall - their collab album "The Ghost Of Georges Bataille" will be released by Bank Records this Spring. Her next solo album is scheduled to be out on Dais Records in August.
KEY PRESS
The Quietus: Interview & "Love is the Capital" Review
Secret Thirteen: Best Albums of 2017 (#2)
Pitchfork Mix for MOMA PS1
The Quietus: Interview & "Love is the Capital" Review
Secret Thirteen: Best Albums of 2017 (#2)
Pitchfork Mix for MOMA PS1
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