Posts Tagged ‘EP Review’

ØrsØ – Terms and Conditions EP

Posted: 5 January 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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Lake of Confidence – 15th December 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

Having worked for far too many years in financial services in order to pay the bills, ‘terms and conditions’ is a term that weighs heavily on my soul and my psyche. All that small print… the devil is in the details, and there’s a good reason customers often feel swindled by the inclusion of impenetrable clauses written in language which only someone with an advanced degree in legalese could even begin to decipher. The title, then, brings fitting connotations to a complex and detailed work, although, mercifully, it’s more rewarding than frustrating and doesn’t leave you feeling bamboozled and shafted over.

Label Lake of Confidence – which sounds like it’s on the moon – informs us that ØrsØ’s debut EP ‘is a reflection on our civilization, offering a gripping critique of consumable culture and post-social network alienation.’ They also describe his style as a fusion of ‘experimental music, indietronica, dark wave and English-speaking pop’, and ‘English-speaking’ is right: ‘Unreal Moment’ has the nagging industrial-strength electro pulse of DAF paired with the electro pop layering of early Pet Shop Boys, topped with a vocal delivery that alludes to the monotone nonchalance of The Flying Lizards.

ØrsØ’s brilliance lies in his ability to amalgamate such a range of elements while still keeping the compositions relatively simple, structurally and in terms of things happening at any given time. These songs – and they very much are songs, even if conventional hooks and choruses aren’t dominant features – are clever and carefully constructed. ‘Dancing Girl’ has something of a recent Sparks vibe about it, while he channels shades of Bowie in the vocals, and this is accentuated on ‘To Yourself’, which could be an outtake from Outside.

The EP’s five tracks showcase the work of an artist who possesses a high level of musical articulacy, matched by a high level of experimental curiosity. There isn’t a weak track here, and significantly, no two tracks are particularly alike: the last of the five, ‘Follow the Wind’ brings a more overtly dance feel, with a pumping bass beat and rippling, trancey synths, but at the same time, there are hints of The Human League and Visage in the mix.

In an ocean – not a lake – of retro-tinged, vaguely dark-hued synthy pop, ØrsØ’s ‘Terms and Conditions’ stands out as being more detailed, more nuanced, and more inventive in its assimilation of wide-ranging elements – and the results are accomplished.

ALTR∞ – Infinite

Posted: 1 January 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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12th December 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

German electro duo ALTR∞ seem like a pretty chipper pair, pronouncing the arrival of their second EP with the theatrical, Shakespeare-referencing proclamation ‘The world is not a stage, it’s a dancefloor: welcome to the Cosmic dancefloor of Eternity!’

They go on to explain how the ‘INFINITE’ EP is a celebration of the complexity and the beauty of life and the connection that binds us all! The broad spectrum of music influences, woven into the EP’s music tapestry, symbolises the infinite flow of ideas and references that shape and drive the Collective Consciousness. We hope that these songs will make you feel free: dancing and releasing all worries and troubles! We wanted to try new things, while exploring a more dancefloor-oriented sound, while still sticking to our own style. The energy was there and the rest just happened as usual – immersing in the magic of the studio and channelling our feelings!’

The EP’s four tracks span just over eighteen minutes, and while they are certainly very rhythmically-orientated, in terms of commercial dance, they’re not what anyone would call bangin’ dance choonz – not even your dad or your grandad. Sonically, Infinite sits somewhere in the middle ground between the minimal techno favoured by Gilles Peterson on his 6 Music show, and the kind of stuff I find modular synth fanatics noodling out at the Electronic Music Open Mic nights we have around the country.

‘I Saw the Future’ is, ironically, a squelchy analogue workout that’s decidedly retro, and the sparse vocals are more 90s dance track dub remix than avant-garde futurism. The vocal snippets add layers or mystique and esotericism, ‘Hurricane’ brings more urgent beats, clattering hand drums rattling over a thudding bass drum and pulsating groove, with weaving synths conjuring an expansive and trace-like atmosphere. The last track, ‘Infinite Mind’ pulses away in an inwardly-focused way.

This isn’t music that will send you wild or dance yourself into a frenzy, but will instead likely catapult you into inner space, and inspect your own psychological circuitry – in a most pleasant way. It kinda sounds like the cover looks.

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Panik Flower – Dark Blue

Posted: 25 December 2023 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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1st December 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

New York’s Panik Flower, purveyors of shoegaze / super washed-out guitar indie rock released their debut single ‘Pretty Face’ in September 2022, and promise ‘dream pop with an understated heaviness. The result is a unique soundscape of soft harmonies, hard-hitting instrumentals and cutting lyricism that evokes the hazy nostalgia of distant memories – ones of love, loss and identity.’

Watching the video to single cut ‘Playground’, which features four of the bandmembers – presumably because it was shot before the current lineup coalesced – pulls a chord of sadness in my chest. It depicts an afternoon spent at a fair, emanating youthful carefree fun, the likes of which is never appreciated at the time, but only ever in hindsight. However aware of the finite nature of youth, there’s a period where it feels that your life lies ahead of you, and every day is a new day. And then, suddenly, it isn’t, and you’re clawing through life a day at a time, strangled by the suffocating sensation that every day that passes is a day lost.

As a jaded, downbeat, saddened old bastard facing decline, I can’t help but be envious of Panik Flower. My youth doesn’t seem so far away until I realize that the bands they remind me of, and the bands from who they draw influence, date from the 90s. The 90s feels like maybe a decade ago: the idea that 1993 was 30 years is both depressing and terrifying. But Dark Blue brings a flighty balance of joy and melancholy.

And so it is that ‘Charades’ brings wistful indie vibes and some bold wells of guitar which grow and grow into crashing waves by the song’s finale. The title track is a solid FX-heavy indie tune with evocative vocals which bear a folksy edge reminiscent of All About Eve’s Julianne Reagan.

The aforementioned ‘Playground’ brings a heavy melancholy and an ache to the chest with its chiming guitars and panging vocal melody, as well as a sturdy chorus. Things get both poppier and also heavier in the choppy, chuggy final track ‘Dilute Me’, which brings big guitars and Garbage vibes and attitude to wrap up a solid EP that packs great songs back to back.

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Rothko – Bury My Heart In The Mountains

Posted: 10 December 2023 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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1st December 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

The latest offering from Mark Beazley’s Rothko follows 2022’s Let Space Speak EP, and standalone single ‘Summer In October, Winter In July’, which was an uncommonly loud and abrasive work by his usual standards, although, in context, it made sense, as he wrote, ‘Things have been blurred, uncertain, scary…here’s to certainty soon’, adding ‘I got my brain scan results today, they all came back showing nothing untoward. Good news on a personal level after such uncertainty, but close friends of mine have not had such positive news this year. This is for all of us.’

It would be a stretch to say I found solace in those words following the loss of my wife at the beginning of the year, but having found grief to be an extremely isolating experience, even with the support of friends, it helps in some small way to realise that you’re not the only one dealing with extreme personal difficulty. It’s easy to go through life feeling somewhat blasé, shrugging ‘hey, what’s the worst that can happen?’ But when confronted with the stark realisation of ‘the worst’, your mindset changes. And after the worst has happened, what then?

The five compositions on Bury My Heart In The Mountains take their titles from the names of peaks in the Swiss Alps, and capture the brooding beauty of these spectacular summits. Mountains possess a powerful magnetism: simultaneously alluring and foreboding, they can mean so much to so many. It would be misguided of me to even begin to attempt to comprehend or to make assumptions about Beazley’s own relationship with these impressive peaks – I can only know my own relationship with those I have climbed or otherwise stood in awe of, here in the UK, particularly the Lake District, a curious blend of exhilaration and tranquillity, joy and fear. Because the mountains may provide the perfect escape, the ultimate experience of life-affirming freedom, but you can never treat them with too much respect, and while they may in themselves be immutable, they’re prone to rapid change when it comes to conditions, and each mountain has its own character of sorts – and this is something which the six pieces on Bury My Heart In The Mountains conveys in the most nuanced of fashions.

The first track, ‘Monte San Giorgio’ extends beyond eleven minutes in duration and brings together all of the different expressions of terrain and the associated emotions, marking the start of an exploratory adventure that’s contemplative and largely calm, but not without peaks and troughs and moments of mounting drama.

Field sounds create a thick atmosphere at the start of ‘Monte San Salvatore’, with cooing and gurgling, and extraneous sounds, before delicate picked guitar notes drift off into the crisp, clear air, while it’s Beazley’s bass which dominates the grumbling yet expansive ‘Säntis’. A chill wind blows on the arrival of ‘Monte Tamaro’, before drifting into a brittle, cold conglomeration of chimes and drones. The final track, ‘Monte Bre’ is but a brief outro, all of the elements of the preceding compositions compressed into a minute and a half, bringing calm and tension simultaneously. It’s unexpected, sending ripples of disquiet through the stilling waters left in the wake of the slow ebbing of ‘Monte Tamaro’ moments before. One suspects that this brief judder is intentionally placed, and leaves the atmosphere that bit less smooth and soothed than before, a reminder that it doesn’t do to become complacent or too comfortable or settled, because life is full of surprises, and you never know what’s around the corner.

Aches – 42 Year Sunset

Posted: 29 November 2023 in Singles and EPs
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Christopher Nosnibor

I’ve harped on about my appreciation of physical releases a fair few times here, and while I am myself striving to declutter my home of late, miscellaneous crap is more clutter than collections. Placing CDs and records snugly on shelves satisfying, and collections are the culmination of what can be a lifetime’s work. I started collecting at the age of around thirteen, having discovered The Sisters of Mercy via Floodland, and the fact that they had a significant back catalogue which wasn’t available on cassette in WHS or Boots, and so started hitting record fairs, which were commonplace at weekends in the late 80s and early 90s.

But while vinyl and cassette have been enjoying a sustained renaissance, CDs remain at a low ebb, and this is a sad state of affairs. Considered by many to be inferior by virtue of their clinical, impersonal nature, they’re the perfect balance of a physical format, and practicality, in that you can skip tracks, for a start.

Receiving a CD copy of Aches’ release through my letter box truly made my day, initially for the simple reason that this is a wonderful physical product – a hand-numbered digipak with a nice sleeve, with a Japanese-style wraparound strip, although it’s not an Obi but a semi-opaque slip which bears the band logo and the track listing. It has quality written all over it, and it’s a joy to hold it. If it sounds like I’m being a physical format enthusiast wanker, so be it: the element of tactility is completely absent from the streaming / download experience, and those who have never experienced it are missing out.

And so turn my attention to the band – well, another experience, but of a different kind. Aches aren’t quite a supergroup, but featuring members of Helpless, Gunderson, The Imperfect Orchestra, and Caracals, they are very much a new hive mind collaborative collective that represents the best of the Plymouth scene – a city which isn’t particularly renowned for its musical exports, but did bring us the unparalleled Cranes at the very least. Aches are a whole lot heavier than Cranes, though.

Heave-ho! ‘Sky Shanty’ comes in hard with a roaring grunt and heft that strains the guts and blasts on a tidal wave of brutal black metal guitar. The roaring impact is enough to stop your breath for a moment. The band’s bio explains how they draw inspiration from writings on capitalism, neuroscience, and drug use, as well as from personal experiences and research on mental illness and suicide, and that this release ‘responds to the feeling of hopelessness we feel, as combating climate change is increasingly minimised by those in power in return for gargantuan profits of archaic industries…’

It may be an incorrect and assumptive joining of the dots to suggest they’ve individually been impacted by these in various ways, but when one in four are likely to suffer mental heath issues in any given year, it’s not unreasonable – but it’s reasonable to recognise the fact that any release which confronts these issues is culturally critical. And those feelings of hopelessness… One suspects they’re widely relatable, and anyone who doesn’t clearly has too much money, and this is about you.

Aches don’t require a trigger warning: life doesn’t come with trigger warnings, after all. But Aches confront all of the topics head-on, and 42 Year Sunrise is hard, heavy, unflinching.

If ‘Sky Shanty’ is fucked-up post-hardcore noise rock, then the brutal ‘Bruxism’ start out hard and heavy before drifting into softness. I’m reminded more of Bjork and Zola Jesus during this soft close. Spinning together dramatic post-punk and elements of post-rock into a multi-faceted roaring torrent of raging anguish which essentially encapsulates the essence of 42 Year Sunset. ‘Bruxism’ is a post-hardcore explosion; switching rapidly between psychotic mania and theatricality, equal parts Dillinger escape Plan and Muse via Oceansize. To pack this much into just over four and a half minutes is a monumental feat which evidences just how articulate and accomplished this release is.

The shortest track is also the heaviest, with ‘Is That It’ bringing a barrage of crushing riffs and packing about three songs’ worth into less than two frenzied minutes, before the monster title track brings forth absolute devastation. It’s a slow, heavy, monotonous crawler that slugs relentlessly. The way the drums roll and patter busily while the guitars grind at a snail’s pace and you feel this pulling at you slowly like a thread tied to your intestines. Five minutes in, the bass cuts in low, slow, dark and heavy, and by the eight-minute mark, it’s burst into a shrieking riot of demonic torture that’s gother than goth: it hurts.

With 42 Year Sunset, Aches articulate the anguish of feeling utterly powerless in the face of everything as it piles up, end on end. It packs so much force, and it hurts. Aches bring the pain, and this is a phenomenal debut.

AA

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Shane Aspegren – Describing The Thing

Posted: 23 October 2023 in Singles and EPs
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Prohibited Records – 27th October 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

The… the… you know? Clicking fingers, gesticulating, waving hands in a rolling motion around your ears. The… thing? The… you know? The thing? The thing!

We’ve all been there. It’s on the tip of your tongue, the fringes of your memory. It hangs like a shadow, a fraction beyond the reach of the active brain. You curse your mind because you know it, and your interlocutor would, too, if only they had a clue what you were on about. The thing. The fucking thing.

The very prospect of reviewing Shane Aspergen’s EP flung me into a spin , because the title tossed me into the frantic headspace in which words run out and everything feels overwhelming, and it’s all down to the title. Because… well, that’s the thing. What is the thing? And how do you even begin to describe it?

This EP, we’re told, ‘comes as a precursor to a forthcoming album (tentatively titled Emblems of Transmuting Heat) that was finished a few months prior to the conceptualization of this four-track EP. While recent in its development, the music originates from the same period of transition, during which Shane Aspegren relocated from Hong Kong to Los Angeles.’

It feels like the sonic articulation of transition, of movement, and it feels transitory, ephemeral, fleeting moments, some of which leave an indelible imprint, others which fade instantly or barely even register in the moment. Precisely how or why this is, it’s hard to pinpoint with any kind of exactitude. But then, that feels like the point: the pieces are impressionistic sound collages. It’s a molecular morass of clamorous, scrabbling treble and scratching insectoid busyness and bubbling synthines which dissolves in a fuzzy hum and clatter; a cross of Gregorian chant, ambient, experimental electronica, and dance.

Aspegren explains how the title track ‘is a complete reworking of a different piece [he] started in 2022. “I completely abandoned the original in its initial form — the raw vocalizations were the only thing that I wanted to keep when I went back to revisit those sessions. The voices were recorded as a form of cathartic release during a period of time that I was heavily exploring voice and frequency as a form of somatic connection and release. In the end, this morphed through several different iterations, and finally turned into this version more than a year later, after moving to LA.” The sense of movement here is one of a forward propulsion, which comes largely from the subtle but insistent beat.

‘Imaginal Pathway’ is but a brief interlude, as was intended, penned as an interlude for the Imaginal Pathways app for which Aspegren was the lead artist. It’s a mere minute and a half – of eddying ambience layered with light, hovering drones which bends and droop amidst birdlike tweets, over which a narrative – seemingly lifted straight from an education video – explains the workings of the ear, a ‘magical’ organ ‘which transports perceptual vibrations from the physical realm into the experiential’.

The final track, ‘iTiS’, is the most recent composition, which came about following his relocation, with Aspegren recounting “It started with a Moog Subharmonicon improvisation and turned into a slow build of layers and structure. Strangely, it feels like the oldest track to me… like I made it in another era of my life.”. It certainly sounds like music from another era, too, the contemporary kit very much harking back to more vintage analogue sound. There’s a soft, squelchiness to the bass tones, a blurring edge to the broad space-filling sweeps. But perhaps sometimes the equipment determines the mood and the sound more than the creator. Either way, it makes for a fitting close to the EP – for having brought the listener through a journey of upheaval, of uncertainty, of feeling unsettled, it ends with what feels like a sense of final settlement, of resolution. And end, but also a new vista, and the possibility of a new beginning.

AA

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Euchridian – Philia

Posted: 9 October 2023 in Singles and EPs
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1st September 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

Details around Scottish black metal act Euchridian and sketchy. They’re a trio, and the drums were recorded at a different studio from the rest of the instruments. And this is to the good. I don’t need to know, and ultimately, probably don’t want to know. What does it matter when they formed, where they live, what gigs they’ve done? The lack of social media presence is admirable: in the absence of corny posed photos and candid snaps and videos of them gurning away at their instruments, I have nothing to judge them on but the music and the enigmatic cover art. And a little enigma goes a long way.

The advent of social media has not been a great thing for many artists. Before social media, it was possible for the music and the record sleeves to represent, and promotion didn’t have to involve endless posts about pointless shit like pictures of the band’s takeaway delivery before a rehearsal. Social media says that bands now need to build a rapport with their fans, to interact, to engage, and frequently to keep them engaged. But acts like Sunn O))) and Khanate prove it’s possible to not do that and build an immense fanbase. Likewise, you won’t see JK Broadrick doing rounds of inane interviews, spouting pointless opinions on pointless subjects to flog a few more Godflesh albums, or GYBE raffling off drum skins and offering personalised hand-written lyric sheets for £75 or whatever.

Musicians by nature tend not to be as extrovert as the act of making and performing music may suggest – and there’s a world of difference from being a pop act with aspirations to performing arenas, to murky metal which channels all the pain and anguish of existence and is much less about reaching an audience than it is about having an outlet for all that shit.

Philia is, according to my light research, one of the four ancient Greek words for love, and compared to agape and eros, it’s perhaps the most obscure. This may in part be a reason for the choice for the EP’s title, but philia is usually translated as ‘friendship’ or affection, and this is what carries into the first track, the nine-and-a-half minute ‘Sweetness’.

Sweetness and black metal may seem unusual pairings, and sure enough, this absolute monster of a track. The guitar sound is quite bright, and it’s a solo riff that opens what starts a crunching slow-burner. The drums crash in slowly next, before Matt Davies’ manic mangled rasp of a strangled snake spitting venom enters the fray. There is a sense of pomp, a sense of ceremony, but above all, this feels maniacal, murderous, deranged and fucked up. The temp shifts here and there, and there’s the obligatory monster guitar solo, but it’s the driving riff that blossoms into something truly epic.

And on the subject of the truly epic, the second track, ‘The Rule Of Three’ is an absolute monster, clocking in at over thirteen-and-a-half minutes and built around a slow, trudging riff. The guitar may be bright, but it’s mangled as fuck and squirms in an agonised tandem with the raw, ruined vocals. Around the mid-point, it switches focus and embarks on a break that s beyond epic – but it’s not corny, either. It is, however, one of those chord sequences played in a way that makes you feel. And the it goes really dark.

Overall, Philia is properly nasty: this is the sound of a band fully committed to plunging the deepest depths of darkness, and ‘Philia’ doesn’t punch you in the guts, but pulls your guts out and squeezes them. Philia is full-on intensity, and hits where it hurts.

AA

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Bug Facer – Triple Death

Posted: 31 July 2023 in Singles and EPs
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Warren Records – 31st July 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

There are few things quite as gratifying as seeing one of your own quotes as the lead on a press release. And so it is that Hull noise punks Bug Facer, who I declared were my new favourite band on the release of their debut single, ‘Horsefly’ in Nov ember, praising them for their ‘claustrophobic, pulverising heaviness that leaves you aching’, rage hard on their debut EP.

What are they angry about? Everything and anything: modern life in general. Triple Death may only contain three tracks and have a running time of less than fourteen minutes, but they pack in the fury with a critical mass. The first cut, ‘Eggshell’ sets the tone, and, they say, ‘explores the idea of cycles with no end and how on an existential level we try to apply meaning to struggle.’ This isn’t just noisy shit: it’s noisy shit with some deep thought involved, and ‘Eggshells’ is low and slow, with a hesitant bassline and swirling guitar that swishes around in a gush of treble, and instrumentally it lands somewhere between The Fall and ‘Budd’ by Rapeman, and it’s completed with howling vocals that sound like every syllable is being torn from James Cooper’s lungs. It’s harsh and harrowing and truly the sound of pain leaving the body.

Theirs is an usual setup, with the drummer and bassist contributing vocals alongside co-founder Cooper who plays guitar. I say play: he and second guitarist Josh Burdette torture their instruments, channelling their angst through mangled chords at high volume. Sonically, their approach is unusual, too: they’re not big on riffs or distortion or driving percussion, the popular cornerstones of angry music of many genres: the sound on Triple Death is steely, grey, murky, creating the kind of oppressive sensation I feel listening to Unsane and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. It makes you feel tense, twisted up and knotted inside.

Picking up the pace with ‘Prod’, which, with the addition of some gurgling synths, steps into a Krautrock groove, before the guitars lunge in and things get messy, the deranged, raw-throated vocals and serpentine guitar lines interweaving in a thicket of discord flay the nerves without mercy. ‘We are all the cattle… We are all the cattle, is the refrain’. And we feel it.

It’s a reworked version of ‘Horsefly’ that closes the EP off, and it’s a cleaner sound that marks the primary difference from the original release of this six-and-a-half-minute trudger of a tune that has the kind of earthy weight of Neurosis. The guitars chime dolorous doom as the bass and drums hammer hard, heavy, relentlessly thudding, so low and slow as to drag your heart down towards your knees.

The clue, I suppose, is in the name. This isn’t just death: it’s triple death, and Triple Death is grim, gloomy, the soundtrack to battling against the tide of shit on shit, when a trip to the seaside is a game of dodge the turds and a tub of butter costs seven fucking quid. When they tell you that inflation is a global issue but the fuel providers and supermarket chains record bumper profits and immense payouts to execs and shareholders while nurses are querying at food banks… fuck this shit. Triple Death is the soundtrack to telling the world, ‘fuck this shit’. One more time: fuck this shit.

AA

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Suburban Spell – Falling Down EP

Posted: 25 June 2023 in Singles and EPs
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Suburban Spell Records – 23rd June 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

The pitch, which recommends Suburban Spell as being for fans of OMD, Boy Harsher, The KVB, Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, The Cars, Rational Youth, piqued my curiosity, rather more than it did my interest. We’re clearly in retro synth territory here, but then there seems to be something of a glut of artists falling into this bracket right now. It can’t all be nostalgia: most of the current crop of artists emulating the late 70s and early 80s weren’t even born before the 90s or even the turn of the millennium. Some of it I suspect is kids discovering their parents’ music collections, while equally, per perhaps more so, it’s a sign of the times we live in. It’s hard to really explain in depth or detail precisely why nostalgia depresses me, but it does, and ersatz nostalgia several fold.

Suburban Spell, however, require less exploration or explanation: this is the solo project of Peter Endall, who was a member of Schizo Scherzo, who were, according to his bio, active in ‘the heady days of Melbourne’s 80’s music scene, playing alongside the likes of The Eurythmics, Pseudo Echo, Real Life and Fergal Sharky.’ These are names to conjure with, names to reflect on.

So when I read that Suburban Spell ‘combines the austere beauty of Kraftwerk, 80’s melodic sensibilities, driving rhythms and some noisy grind thrown in for good measure. Influenced by the heyday of new wave and 70’s-80’s electronica, this music carries the beautiful imprints of such artists as Ultravox, OMD, Visage, Jean-Michel Jarre, The Cars, Gary Numan and New Order’, it makes sense. This is the music of the era which is coded into his generational DNA. Not that I really get much sense of Ultravox, OMD, or Visage from the five tracks on offer here. But… they’re good.

The songs on the Falling Down EP are both much darker and much more sophisticated than those on Schizo Scherzo’s Back to Back EP – but then, that was 1985, and technology has evolved and people mature and evolve also.

The title track is the opener, and while it’s very much 80s in its stylings, it’s contemporary in its production. It’s driven by a pulsating synth and beat dominated by a whip-cracking Akai snare, while Endall delivers a vocal smoothed by reverb and EQ balancing. But it’s the echoey bass break, that evokes the spirit of New Order and Disintegration-era Cure that really makes this a winning groove.

‘Salvation Army’ explores deeper atmospherics through a starker musical backdrop before ’12 Causes of Pain’ thuds in with some hard dancefloor-friendly trance-pop. The looping pulsations cast a nod to Dionna Summer’s classic ‘I Feel Love’ – a song that feels like it belongs to the 80s, but was actually released in 1977 – and the vocals and rippling synth overlays are pure Kratwerk. It’s easy to forget that the sounds so commonly associated with the 80s actually came from the late 70s, but there’s always a lag between decades: s, too. songs from the early 90s can so easily be mistaken from the late 80s, too.

I’ve spent a huge chunk of my evening trying to figure out which 80s track ‘Natural Science’ reminds me of, and while I can’t quite pinpoint it, Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy the Silence’ is as closed as I can get, although it equally brings strong vibes of Howard Jones and the like.

The six-minute closer, ‘Side Car’ goes all out for spacious, atmospheric, and ambient, twisting into post-rock territory with the breaking out of a reverby guitar. Against a swirling synth backdrop with a slow, ponderous bass and shimmering textures, before fading to quiet in a wonderful fuzz of ambience.

Falling Down has much going for it: so much so, that by the end of the set, it’s more pick-me-up than falling down.

AA

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Hammok – Now I Know

Posted: 31 May 2023 in Singles and EPs
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Renoir Records – 9th June 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

And so it goes that ‘In 2022, Norway’s Hammok released their first EP ‘Jumping/Dancing/Fighting’ and received very good reviews in publications such as Distorted Mag and Pitchfork – and we fucking loved it, too.

The press pitch for the Oslo-based trio’s follow-up, Now I Know, promises ‘a new chapter for the band [which] takes listeners on a vast and powerful journey, beginning on a more bright tone with the band exploring their more introspective and emotionally intense side and gradually drifting towards a more heavier and ferocious approach, reaching levels of fury and intensity never explored before.’

Predictably, perhaps, then, we fucking love this, too.

The EP comprises three tracks: ‘This Will Not Last’ parts one and two, and the title tune, and immediately, with ‘This Will Not Last PT 1’, the shift from the previous release is apparent. The vocals are still trained and straining, angry, aggressive, but they’re swamped in reverb as the instrumentation forges an almost shoegazey, dream pop curtain of sound. The thick, blooping, glooping bass and other key elements are still present but they’re all softer, meaning there’s no gut-punching blasts like ‘Contrapoint’ here. That isn’t to say it’s entirely mellow: it does break into a driving riff propelled by pounding drums and a blizzard of guitar around the mid-section, then takes a turn for the darker in the final minute. Perversely, as much as it’s a pristine slice of post-punk / noise rock crossover, it equally makes me think of a hardcore version of The Twilight Sad and I Like Trains.

‘This Will Not Last PT 2’, released as a preview, is the most accessible and melodic song on the EP, and is their most commercial cut to date by a mile, presenting a melodic, post-hardcore face. Melody is relative, mind you. It’s hardly The Coors. It sits strangely ahead of ‘Now I Know’ which is dense and dark and abrasive in its roaring rage and frantic pace. The guitars chop and churn, and by the close, Tobias Osland is practically spraying his flayed larynx in spatters on the floor as he purges his final howls of obliterative fury.

Hammok have expanded both their sound and range, but while there are softer moments, it would be a mistake to say that they’ve softened overall – and the softer moments only serve to give the hard blasts even greater impact, making for a second killer EP.

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