Shrieking vocals? Mogwai-referencing guitar soundscapes? Can-influenced keyboard surges? A band from Leeds named after an intestinal parasite? An album named after a low-frequency drone that, for a small percentage of people, can lead to madness and death? Musicians that wish to be known only by their initials?
As their Domino-subsidiary record label signposts, this is the weird world of Hookworms, a band that have heretofore been operating at the murky coalface of the UK’s sturdy underground music scene. We say “heretofore” because it’s likely that The Hum will generate, well, you could say a “buzz” about a band that uses propulsive rhythms like a carpenter uses a nail gun.
Formed in 2009, it seems Hookworms have not been in a rush to find their space-rock feet. The band began as practitioners of specialist music as beloved by the likes of Julian Cope (who described their music as “heat haze on-the-road sonic wipeout”), and have gradually shaken off the most obvious reference points (Spaceman 3, Loop, Spiritualized) to arrive at a place where ambition intersects with skills.
Opening track The Impasse is the odd one out: paying homage to both The Stooges and At The Drive-In, its frenetic flurry of distortion makes way for a far more focused album of layered Krautrock wig-outs, notably two class examples of the form, On Leaving and Radio Tokyo.
A full album-on-headphones experience that is part dense shoegaze, full-on drones and grinding rhythms, The Hum is, largely, as concise and circular a sonic statement as you can get these days: six bulletproof tunes connected by wafting instrumentals from a bunch of people who listen to Kaiser Chiefs and don't necessarily like what they hear. parasiticnematode.blogspot.com
