The music of Hun Hun does not pretend to exist in distant worlds. The supposedly exotic elements on the Brussels brothers Jimmy and Noé Moens’ debut do not appropriate other cultures. That claim would be easy to make, given how saturated this music is with tribal rhythms, oriental-sounding motifs and unfamiliar voices. But its foundation is concrete – the kind from which the dancefloor of a suburban club is poured. We simply arrive two hours before opening time.
The track »Spell« makes this clear. Synth basses meet minimalist percussion; plucked string motifs appear, atmospheric layers drift in and out; voices speak from a near distance. The elements are organised through repetition. And then come moments of stillness – the crucial ingredient. Pauses in which the asphalt becomes audible. The music does not draw attention to what it presents, but to what it withholds: a kick drum, for instance. The full pressure of the bass. In doing so, it becomes apparent just how deeply this music thinks from the perspective of the club.
Macadam Mambo is a label attuned to such in-between spaces – music that resists clear classification. Frantic Flow of the Gong fits perfectly: not world music, not techno, not ambient. Hun Hun do not impose a cultural template onto their sound. They reflect lived realities – interstitial spaces as they emerge daily in St Gilles or Neukölln. Not a fantasy of world music, but urban hybridity. The rhythms, sounds and voices are not exotic – they are everyday. Music of the present.
