H.A.B.

Brooklyn-based artist Hans Carlsson makes intricate melodic electro with vague echoes of hip-hop and drum'n'bass under the name hab. A native of Sweden, Carlsson's earliest musical involvement was with a number of punk and alternative rock bands (he plays guitar and sings), among them a four-piece called Mouth that made it as far as a major-label contract (on Warner subsidiaries Telegram and Reprise in Sweden and America, respectively) before dissolving in 1994 under the weight of an archetypally "corporate rock" experience. Carlsson spent subsequent years traveling from Sweden to Holland to Paris, and finally to the Hasidic neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn (site of a sort of late-'90s New York bohemian renaissance), where he's recorded most of his material under the name hab. The first of that material began appearing through Sweden's Dot label after a demo of Carlsson's work was upped by then-Dot artist Krister Linder (of Tupilaq); Linder's and Carlsson's debut EPs for the label were among its first releases and helped garner Dot the attention that transformed the label into something of an overnight sensation. Carlsson followed that 12-inch up with a full-length in September of 1997; titled maPOd, the album is a stunning collection of both rhythmically stunning and melodically engaging post-techno, interweaving thin, intricately syncopated percussion with thematic figures that are given far more focus and development than is typical of even the most armchair-oriented of electronica. ~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide