terzomondo's blog
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Saturday, July 1st, 2006
Thin Line Between Love And Hate
Now, a mystery for you. This man over here  is Rainer Hardt, German guitarist, also known as Rainer Hass, which apparently means "Pure Hate" in German. While browsing around the isound website, I found a page about him, the story of a talented but unsuccessful musician, who was later diagnosed as schizophrenic and finally took his own life in 1943. It's a fascinating read and when you listen to the track provided there - Me and My Baby - you hear a man who played like Django Reinhardt and who could definitely turn a good tune. Which makes you want to find out more. The label that discovered his music (or what was smuggled out of Germany to the U.S., according to the bio) is one that specialises for the most part in cheerful, death-related bands and rejoices under the name of Deathwax Records. So far, so spooky.
The homepage for Rainer Hass includes more photos, more or less the same bio and another track from the classic that is "Live In Leipzig 1930". The site owners claim that the master copies of Hass's work are still being processed, which means that an eventual CD of his won't be released until later this year. Dead end, if you'll pardon the expression.
A quick look at the label forum pulled up a really strange result: Hass is the subject of a page on myspace, wih the now-familiar bio and a "new" track called "Death". It must be wonderful for him, 63 years after his death, to be part of such a great community and interact with so many people. Curioser...
To round off the search, the wikipedia, rare record dealers gemm and the Encyclopaedia Britannica (God Bless Her) have nothing on Rainer Hass / Hardt, so you're left with the overwhelming feeling that this is a beautifully-constructed hoax similar to a Zelig or Citizen Kane. In any case, the story is intriguing and the music is great. Whoever's doing it knows their stuff and I salute them.
If anyone finds out any more about Mr. Pure Hate, please let me know!
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| Posted By terzomondo @ 11:36 AM | [Comment on this blog post] |
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