Dust off your trusty Sony Walkman and make sure your belt is tight enough to support it because we are going to take a trip down memory lane. Brooklyn-based band Super Hi-Fi has taken the challenging task of releasing a reimagined cover album of one of the most recognized bands of all time and could have easily bitten off more than they can chew. That band is Nirvana.
“…we traded the melody between the trombones and guitar and slowed the whoole thing down to a deep, dubby crawl”
Super Hi-Fi’s fourth full-length album titled Super Hi-Fi Plays Nirvana is a heavy assortment of some of Nirvana’s most iconic songs torn down and placed through Super Hi-Fi’s unique blend of extensive echoes, brass section and panoramic delays. As the admirably straightforward title of this album would indicate, the mixes of Super Hi-Fi are deeply rooted in the classic dubwise style, though you would never mistake them for the genuine article.
Super Hi-Fi adds, “The challenge in covering any well known song is to make something new out of it while keeping something about it that makes it recognizable. For this one we traded the melody between the trombones and guitar and slowed the whole thing down to a deep, dubby crawl.”
Today, Top Shelf Reggae is honored to premiere the third track of the album titled “Heart Shaped Box.” The track gets off to a gentle, low key start with the sparse percussions and bass before Super Hi-Fi takes your hand and leads you into an echo-laden shanty where the horns take over.
The seven track album will be released on cassette and download only. Yes, cassette. Come this December 2nd, you can purcha . se the album in digital or physical form. Speaking about the cassette format, bassist and founder Ezra Gale says, “I’m a complete nerd about the 4-track, I love it, and I played some songs I recorded on it for some friends and they were like, oh, you recorded these on cassette, you should release them on cassette too. And at first I said, very funny, nobody has a portable cassette tape player anymore, but then I looked into it and found out it’s become kind of a thing lately. Which I was really excited about, because I’ve always loved cassettes, ever since I got Duran Duran’s “Rio” for Christmas when I was like, 8 years old!” he laughs.
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Disclaimer: All views presented in this album review are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of Top Shelf Music.
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