Before I go any further, I must thank Hans Weekhout for confirming for me that he used the alias of Capricorn because it is his star sign. Indeed, he shares his birthday with someone who tends to overshadow anyone else born on the same day. So, if you enjoy this track, please send birthday cards to Jellywood Studios in Amsterdam. On the basis of 20 Hz, he deserves the acclamation.
20 Hz has three distinct movements and is, for the most part all about the beats, which hit home in a particularly European way.
The first movement puts me in mind of Date M by The Traveller, because it shares with it what I previously described as bicycle spoke percussion. Listening closely, I now recognise those struck bicycle spokes as probably being a glass bottle xylophone. Whatever it is, it makes for a wonderfully beguiling melody line to lead the listener into the centrepiece of the track.
For the second movement, at the 58 second mark, we get wind of something which initially sounds like radio interference but which builds over the next 75 seconds into a relentless onslaught of marching band drumming, all underpinned by an equally insistent throbbing bassline.
As the drummers fade out into the distance, around 2:15, we move to the third and best part of the track. The synths squelch and swell, the beats change from rhythmical to groovy and the whole thing starts to take off into the stratosphere. It’s almost a shame that everything loops around again over the final three minutes, given that the first 3 and a half minutes are so perfectly realised that if Weekhout had chosen to fade out at 3:30 then 20 Hz could be held up as having no flab or excess on it all. Just a perfectly realised jewel. At the very least, having displayed it’s brilliance through it’s first half, a repeat through the second half allows any waverers time to get to the dance floor.
It’s a surprise that 20 Hz wasn’t a hit in ‘93, however, four years later, a reissue called 20 Hz (New Frequencies) snuck into the Top 75 of the UK Singles chart.
Video courtesy of paolosounds.
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