Veda Hille: This Riot Life

By: Dennis Cook

Artfully drawn and packed with intense aromas, Veda Hille‘s latest finds her doctoring Christian hymns, trimming their angel wings and bending harps in a way that’s perversely more spirited, more impactful than most churches can manage. This Riot Life (Ape House) cries, “Heaven and Earth, it rocks, it rocks, it rocks,” as “a sacred heart bleeds all over everywhere.” This Vancouver, BC outsider fixture finds great footing here, where she buzzes with some of the mildly bent, neo-classical arc of Jane Siberry and Mathilde Santing and the arrangements smack of Carla Bley and Van Dyke Parks tinged with something endearingly folksy. Yet, there’s the biting grip of hard rock grumbling below what are largely gorgeously complex constructions. Just deciphering the flow of language and imagery will keep one busy, and you may find yourself frequently lost in her sharp, winging voice or the rise & fall of strings. While not a name familiar to many Stateside, Veda Hille makes consistently thrilling music and This Riot Life is her most fully formed effort to date.

Here’s a stripped down version of “Ace of the Nazarene,” one of new album’s “rockers” performed outdoors in Vienna.

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