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JOHN SHAND reviews LEKKER 3.5 stars

Ben Hauptmann
LEKKER (benhauptmann.com)3.5 stars

This music is like a lush garden viewed via time-lapse photography, with some new plant rising from the earth and blossoming into a dazzling display of colour. The sounds are nearly all electronic, but Ben Hauptmann’s peculiar achievement is to have imbued them with warmth as well as this sense of luxuriant density. A versatile guitarist across jazz, world, rock, folk and cabaret idioms, Hauptmann here zeros in on what we might label techno fusion, generating most of the sounds himself, with his primary helper being his brother James on drums and percussion. The resultant sound-world is sometimes Eno-esque, or perhaps even more reminiscent of those two collaborations in the ’80s between Robert Fripp and Andy Summers. You feel yourself so surrounded by thickets of enchanting melodies and appealing sounds that, in a can’t-see-the-wood-for-the-trees effect, the expert musicianship fades into the background. Guests include Katie Noonan, Arne Hanna, Brendan Clarke and Dan Junor. JOHN SHAND

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ALBUM LAUNCH


Saturday April 26th at FBI Social, enjoy the luscious sounds of guitarist Ben Hauptmann’s new album“Lekker”. Packed with retro delights, glorious midi, tasty samples and live instrumentation from some of the choicest musos in the country, this is a palette of sonic flavours both delicious and hip, sure to put a tingle in your tasetbuds and a smile on your lips. With support from post-rock instrumental maestros Danaides and words from “Sydney’s sexiest man voice” Luke Escombe, the Lekker launch is your ticket to a fun-filled musical feast, served up fresh by SIMA and the gourmet crew at Yum Yum Tree Records.
 
Ben Hauptmann (guitar) 
Dan Junor (ewi) 
Franco Raggatt (guitar) 
Harry Sutherland (keyboard) 
Jonathan Zwartz (bass) 
James Hauptmann (drums) 
Evan Mannell (mpc)
 
date: 26th of April 2014
time: 8:30pm
tix: $20/$15/$10
www.sima.org.au 
FBi Social – L2 248 William Street, Sydney NSW
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