Labels: Caleiah – Desertion – mum says be polite records – Red Panda – sncl – Stereo Dasein – time as a color
Review by: MH
This is a record that came out midway through 2014 and is one that deserves talking about. I’ll start with aesthetics – it looks beautiful – thought, heart, countless hours and everything else have gone into putting this together – there are loads of inserts, images and messages inside the sleeve from the five bands that were involved.
On to the music then. Human Hands open this with “Aestivate” which sees them in brooding and moody form with the bassline prominent throughout. Nebraska from Adelaide are up next with “Furnace Head” which reminds me of UK emo in the 90s. The despair in the vocals lurks and is tangible but things don’t hurtle out of control. When the guitars and drums get going it teeters right on the edge. It might be the best Nebraska song so far for me and leaves me wanting to hear more from them. When I first heard the Asthenia track on here, they were more of a mystery to me but I’ve since played their debut record to death. The song on here features a subdued opening half before the ending brings everything crashing down and into the ferocity of Manku Kapak’s “Kartenhaus” which absolutely rips from the off. Nico’s vocals are distraught in the opening and it’s an explosive journey from thereon in. This track is one of their best and the contrast between the distraught vocals and the spoken is as powerful as ever. This record also served as an introduction for me to Duct Hearts whose track mixes emo with a pretty post rock sound and they end proceedings here.
This is five bands that still hold a candle for the way things were and this record documents the fact that there are still bands who sound and feel like this. Not a record you should let pass you by if you ever held the sounds of 90s emo dear.