Tag: Hum

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Cloakroom Releases a Trippy and Mind-Bending Visual for Sludgy “Fear of Being FIxed”

Northwestern Indiana-based space rock outfit Cloakroom — currently Doyle Martin (vocals, guitar), Bobby Markos (bass) and newest member Tim Remis (drums) — formed back in 2012. And since their formation, the Indiana-based outfit have released an EP and two full-lengths: 2013’s Infinity EP, 2015’s Further Out and 2017’s Time Well.

The band’s third album Dissolution Wave is slated for a January 28, 2022 release through Relapse Records. The album’s material tells the story of a universe created by the band’s Doyle Martin as a way of processing the events of the past couple of years. “We lost a couple of close friends over the course of writing this record,” he says. “Dreaming up another world felt easier to digest than the real nitty-gritty we’re immersed in every day.” 

Within the space western of the album, an act of theoretical physics — the dissolution wave — wishes out all of humanity’s existing art and abstract though. In order to keep the world spinning on its axis, songwriters must fill the ether with their compositions. But the Spire and Ward of Song act as a filter for all human imagination: Only the best material can pass through the filter and keep the world turning.

With lyrics based on a detailed, imagined cosmology Dissolution Wave marks several different things for the band: Their third album will be released as the band marks their tenth anniversary as a band. The album is the first batch of recorded output with Tim Remis, who joined the band back in 2019. And importantly, the album, which was recorded at Tolono, IL-based Earth Analog reportedly sees the band expanding upon their dynamic space rock palette: the material features loops and piano by HUM‘s Matt Talbott and exterior percussion by Sweet Cobra‘s Jason Gagovski.

“Fear of Being Fixed” is a slow-burning and forceful dirge centered around sludgy power chords, thunderous drumming, chugging bass lines paired with Martin’s plaintive falsetto floating over the mix. And while sonically bringing Spelljammer to mind, the song feels haunted by profound loss and uncertainty.

Directed by Colorshift, Vin Romero and Julius Jiminez, the recently released video for “Fear of Being Fixed” features the members of Cloakroom performing the song in a studio and shot on grainy, and over processed VHS tape — to mind-bending effect.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Best known for being a member of Me You Us Them, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and bassist Ian Ljungquist has stepped out on his own with his solo recording project Time Travel Ban.

During quarantine isolation, Ljunqquist was rather productive: he wrote and recorded Time Travel Ban’s five-song debut, Smoke & Mirrors in a Brooklyn-based rehearsal space. Seemingly inspired by 120 Minutes MTV-era alt rock like My Bloody Valentine, Hum, Jawbox, Shiner, Foo Fighters, and Ringo Deathstarr, the EP’s material will likely be nostalgia-inducing yet fresh sounding.

The EP’s material was carefully assembled by stacking layers of woozy guitars and chugging low-end atop of structure of persistently pounding rhythms. The EP’s latest single “Free Me From Myself” is a great example of what listeners should expect: rousingly anthemic hooks, woozy, pedal-effected power chords, a motorik-like chug of a rhythm and thunderous drumming. And while this particular song sonically manages to remind me a bit of Finelines-era My Vitriol, the song feels urgent and desperate. As Ljungquist explains in press notes, the song is about the feeling as though you were trapped within your own malfunctioning mind — without respite or escape.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Nostalgist is a Seattle, WA-based post-punk/shoegaze act led by founding member and primary songwriter Asa Eisenhardt (vocals, guitar)  — and with the release of 2013’s Monochromatic EP and 2015’s Of Love and Days Ago, the Seattle-based project received attention for a heavy and moody sound that’s been influenced by Lowlife, Slowdive, Lycia, The Comsat Angels, The Chameleons, Killing Joke, Fields of the Nephilim, Hum and Red House Painters among others.

Recorded and mixed throughout 2016 and 2017, Disaffection, the long-awaited follow up to Of Love and Days Ago features guest spots from renowned drummer Aesop Dekker, who’s been a member of Khorada, Worm Ouroboros, Extremity and a former member of ex-Agalloch; Alex Entrekin (drums), who joined on as the project’s new drummer; and Monte McCleery (bass) who’s also a member of Seattle-based doom act Un. Interestingly, the effort features five originals and a cover of Catherine Wheel’s “Texture.” Disaffection‘s second and latest single “Smoldering Amber” finds the band drawing from post-punk, shoegaze and grunge, as the song is centered around a familiar structure — quiet, loud, quiet, with the quieter verses featuring towering and shimmering guitar chords over which Eisenhardt’s mournful vocals ethereally float over, and the blistering power chord-based chorus, held together with a propulsive rhythm section and arpeggiated synths. Without a doubt, the song will immediately bring 120 Minutes-era MTV to mind with a cinematic quality; but underneath the surface is a plaintive and aching yearning that gives the song a Romantic quality.

As Nostalgist’s Asa Eisenhardt says in press notes, “This is the most lyrically intimate thing I’ve written to date. As with many of my songs, it chronicles the beginning, middle and end of some manner of relationship, but here the words are especially dramatic (even for me, ha) and visceral. Infatuation is the most central theme. The instrumental arrangement emphasizes a dub rhythm in the verses, and I expect that influence to become even more prominent in future material. Dub was an enormous influence on ’80s post-punk, so following the throughline from bands I hold near and dear as influences (Comsat Angels, The Chameleons and Killing Joke to name but a few) and investigating that sound continues to be a natural progression for me.”

“At the same time, I do my best to really blend things up when I write, and both the mix and contrast of the heavy and the ethereal in ‘Smoldering Amber’ is easily the most pronounced of the songs on Disaffection. The verse section is minimal and grooving, but the chorus is huge and lumbering. The bridge is fragile and deliberate, the outro is hard-charging, uptempo and intertwined with synth melody. Dynamics are another dimension of musical color one can explore and manipulate, really. All in all, I think this track is especially exemplary of our elemental makeup”.
Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Fronted by 23 year-old Jacob Duarte, the Houston, TX-based indie rock trio Narrow Head has quickly developed a reputation for a sound that draws from 120 Minutes-era alternative rock, as it simultaneously possesses elements of grunge and shoegaze — and considering that the band suggests acts like Hum, Deftones, Failure, Swirlies and My Bloody Valentine as influences, that shouldn’t be surprising.

Recorded at the end of last year, during recording sessions intended for their next full-length album, the Houston-based trio’s latest single “Bulma” will further cement the trio’s reputation for a decidedly 1990s sound, as they firmly add their names to a growing list of contemporary bands, who have brought back a familiar and beloved sound with a subtly modern twist, like Dead Stars and others.

The band is currently on a West Coast tour. Check out the tour dates below.

Tour Dates:

Jan 13 – Fullerton, CA @ Programme
Jan 14 – Oakland, CA @ tba
Jan 15 – San Francisco, CA @ tba
Jan 16 – Eugene, OR @ Voodoo Donuts
Jan 17 – Portland, OR @ Blackwater
Jan 18 – Olympia, WA @ tba
Jan 19 – Seattle, WA @ Black Lodge
Jan 20 – Vancouver, BC @ Subculture Club

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Brooding 70s-Inspired Visuals for Wilding’s “Hot Prowl”

Wilding is a Los Angeles, CA-based indie rock trio, comprised of Dave Woody (guitar, vocals), Dave Bowman (bass) and Andrew Platts (drums) that has publicly cited Hum, Fugazi, Mew, M83, Autolux and Interpol as influences, although with “Hot Prowl,” off their Secular Music EP, which was released earlier this year, the band manages to specialize in the sort of anthemic and moody shoegaze that reminds me quite a bit of Jersey City, NJ’s Overlake, Chicago’s Lightfoils and others, complete with some explosive guitar pyrotechnics paired with thundering and insistent drumming.

The recently released video for “Hot Prowl” is comprised of footage from an extremely obscure 70s film featuring some bored and brooding kids who goof off and get high — and it’s obvious that not only do they not have answers for anything, the footage has a hit of old PSAs about drugs and alcohol.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Dave Woody (guitar, vocals), Dave Bowman (bass) and Andrew Platts (drums), Wilding is a Los Angeles, CA-based indie rock trio and although the trio cite influences including Hum, Fugazi, Mew, M83, Autolux and Interpol among others — although interestingly enough, as you’ll hear on “Hot Prowl,” the latest single off the trio’s forthcoming EP Secular Music, the band specializes in an anthemic and moody shoegaze that’s sonically reminiscent to the likes of Jersey City, NJ’s Overlake, Chicago’s Lightfoils and others, complete with some explosive guitar pyrotechnics paired with thundering and insistent drumming.