Dishee by Hugo Race

About Hugo Race: Hugo is a native Melbournian, class of ‘63. A former Bad Seed, he spent 3 decades in Europe, particularly Italy, travelling the channel back and forth – where the personal and the musical collide! Hugo has released 30 albums on Glitterhouse, Sub Rosa, RecRec, Normal, Bang!, Desvelos and the Polish independent label Gusstaff Records as well as Other Tongues, Village Roadshow, Citadel, Spooky and Rampant Records in Australia.
Hugo’s alchemical fusion of rock, roots, experimentalism and blues has gained him an
international audience and a network of collaborators, promoters and labels, releasing multiple albums and projects under many different names – Fatalists, Dirtmusic, Sepiatone, LDO, Merola Matrix, Gemini 4. In 2016, Hugo’s first book, a memoir, ‘Road Series’, was published by Transit Lounge.

Dishee… what the fuq is a dishee you might ask?
It’s a made-up word derived from ancient Sanskrit that can exorcise demons. The Melbourne winter of 2020 was a reality shift and my reality unfortunately
shifted with it. For decades my life had been a continuum of reckless roadtrips, missed trains, packed intercontinental 747’s, dispassionate, haunted hotel
rooms and maverick promoters. For years, I never stayed anywhere for more than a few months. I was searching for something to distract myself.
And then I became truly distracted…
March 2020 challenged me to implode inwards instead of exploring outwards. I studied ancient spiritual techniques and locked myself away to brood, meditate
and smoke – anything to ease the crushing ache of lockdown and the 20-cent coin I now danced upon. I missed my old life. Everybody did.
I was skeptical that meditation and searching within could produce a record.
But then someone close to me was taken by a demon and my heart went missing with him. Dishee is the exorcism of that demon from both of us.
Hugo Race - Dishee 2
I bought a new guitar from Demonic Dishee town. The guitar was made in Japan the same year I was born and like many haunted vintage guitars
contained unheard-of music waiting for the right fingers to set it free. I practiced snap freezing and distorting guitar sounds then started using the same treatments
on my voice, paralyzing words mid-sentence. I inserted swathes of liquid ink into every irreverent guitar slide and vocal harmony, searching for a new sound
rich with sonic grit and wild unpredictability.
And then something incredible happened. During my nightly night terrors, my Dishee murdered that child-snatching demon at a distance of forty paces with amillennium-old mantra and the practice of detachment. This record is the soundtrack of an exorcism.

Hugo Race, May 2021