-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: Hookworms ALBUM...: Pearl Mystic GENRE...: Psychedelic Rock STYLE...: Psychedelic Space Rock YEAR....: 2013 LABEL...: Gringo ENCODER.: LAME 3.98.4 -V0 BITRATE.: 243 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CD TRACKS..: 9 SIZE....: 79.28 MB URL..: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookworms_%28band%29 - TRACKLIST 1 Away / Towards 8:49 2 Form And Function 5:58 3 I 2:44 4 In Our Time 4:50 5 Since We Had Changed 7:32 6 Preservation 5:04 7 II 1:30 8 What We Talk About 4:01 9 III 3:51 Total Playtime: 44:19 Perfection can be defined in many ways. The process of improving something until it is flawless. A paragon of excellence. A definitive end state that could not be bettered. The highest degree of quality. Unimpaired. Complete in every sense. An ideal instance. Sublimity. Preciseness. The highest standard possible to achieve. When applied to a particular work of art such traits are wholly subjective. One man's agony being another man's ecstasy and all that. You could argue that nineteenth century painter Claude Monet's impressionist paintings embody a state of perfection, or the futuristic screenplays of George Lucas. Go down the musical route and there's any number of candidates from The Beatles Revolver to The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed, Kraftwerk's Autobahn and Manic Street Preachers' The Holy Bible. Does that make each comparable like-for-like? No, not really. But as creative pieces go, either individually or collectively, they've become the standard bearers, benchmarks any discernible artist in their respective field should aspire to. Not in a voyeuristic way. Or as vanity induced plagiarism either. But simply in striving to be the best. Creating a masterpiece that is unlikely to be improved. A statement that documents an unimpeachable moment in time. Without any flaws, minor or otherwise. Because that's exactly what Leeds five-piece Hookworms have managed to do here. Intended or otherwise - and we'd strictly expect the latter from a band so ingrained in the independent philosophy of improvisation and self-regulation -Pearl Mystic just happens to be one of those records that embodies perfection. Throughout its nine individual pieces - three of which could be described as interlude passages, although such a dismissive approach would be doing them and their vital presence on the record a hair-splitting disservice - there's no room for improvement. Listening back to Pearl Mystic - something these ears have on a several-times-daily rotation since this record dropped on the doormat in the latter half of January - it's difficult to envisage how Hookworms could have conjured up anything better. Forget the hyped buzz bands: this is the sound of the past, present and future all rolled into one. A timeless artifact steeped in reference points yet so instinctively fresh and vibrant as to leave everything else around it gasping for breath on the hard shoulder. It's a record capable of making bodily hairs stand on end from top to bottom. Of inciting conversations of the 'Where were you when you first heard Pearl Mystic?' variety between random strangers. One that can make people stop what they're doing for an entire day. Maybe even longer. If I was 16-years-old again (wishful thinking) it would undoubtedly persuade me to join/form a band. Seriously, jaw-dropping and inspirational in every way. And what of its creators? A mysterious bunch who'd rather be referred to in public by their initials than the full names given at birth. In being the total antithesis of people like Noel Gallagher and Johnny Borrell they're leading the way for the real alternative movement. Anti-rock stars fully committed to the sum of their parts rather than egotistic individuals. A band where the term 'collective' means so much more than ten letters of the alphabet spread across a single piece of paper. Unlikely as it may seem in the current climate where everything has to be polished and pre-packed within an inch of its life, Pearl Mystic has an undeniable raw quality which suggests it could have been recorded in one take. Improvised in the studio even, like one superfluous jam recorded for posterity. But then as anyone that's seen a Hookworms live show can witness, it's merely a case of the band doing what they do best, albeit in a different setting. Cathartic yet uncompromisingly menacing, brutal and yet soothingly hypnotic, Pearl Mystic ticks every box from the opening bars of 'Away/Towards' to 'iii''s closing subconscious beauty. Without dwelling too much on the band's influences - and let's not forget Hookworms stating in numerous interviews about their shared love of US hardcore - comparisons to the likes of Loop, Hawkwind, The Grateful Dead and Spacemen 3/Spiritualized are almost inevitable. However, what must be noted is the way Hookworms take inspiration and turn it into something completely earth shattering. Let's return to the near nine minutes opener 'Away/Towards' for example. Its slow build up reminiscent of the way 'Black Sun' introduces Loop's Black Sun, except around the three minutes mark it develops an entirely audacious life of its own before taking off into another galaxy. With the echo drenched vocals act more as an additional instrument than wax lyrical, its clear Hookworms really are about letting their music do the talking. Guitars reverberate amidst a cascading rhythm that repeats itself mantra-like until fade, a lysergic trip without chemical enhancement. Not that Pearl Mystic doesn't have a number of lyrical themes running throughout. Producer-cum-mouthpiece in chief MJ has spoken openly about depression in the past, and here combined with observations detailing personal loss and reasons for existence he and his cohorts address such issues via hypnotic, transcendental pieces such as the sprawling 'Form and Function'. Seguing in and out of focus at regular intervals. 'i' becomes 'In Our Time' which is then transformed into 'Since We Had Changed' and so forth. The latter song is arguably the album's centre piece, taking its cues from original psychedelic purveyors The Grateful Dead or Hawkwind and present day likes of The Horrors' 'I Only Think Of You'. That it somehow manages to usurp all speaks volumes, its frazzled state of contortion worth the admission fee to Pearl Mystic alone. 'Preservation' feels like being welcomed by the apocalypse, surging drums giving way to a hail of feedback and distortion, all held together by what seems on paper like the simplest of chord structures. 'What We Talk About' also relies heavily on a distorted bassline and dramatic percussion segments, its only distinguishing words proving key as "It's time to say goodnight" echoes in and out of focus. Moulded together by the eerie 'ii', 90 seconds of euphoric noise where dreams become nightmares in an instant. Ultimately, Pearl Mystic has a revolution quality about it. Rather than re-inventing wheels it begs the listener to loosen the axles and throw them away. Who needs wheels? Indeed. The sound of the past welded to the present to form a blueprint for the future aka the sound of perfection. * Leeds-based five-piece Hookworms have been tagged as part of a new psychedelic movement, alongside the likes of TOY. That they've toured with Wooden Shjips and Peaking Lights adds credence to the categorisation. Even Julian Cope has been moved to blog about them: "Do not miss this shoegazing Skynyrd, brothers'n'sisters," he wrote on the Head Heritage website. And the arch-drude knows all about the far out. Add to these appealing introductions the fact that Hookworm's members go only by their initials √ "We've no interest in being celebrities," says vocalist MJ √ and it seems the outfit might be ready to resurrect their hometown as a home of spooks and freak-outs. Pearl Mystic initially evokes the likes of Loop, Dr. Phibes and the House of Wax Equations, and even Spacemen 3 √ albeit if the latter were rather less substances-laced. But there's a lyrical richness here, too. It's this aspect that ensures that Hookworms are not a band simply to tune into and drone out to. Proffered are musings on battling depression, explorations of existentialism, and the depths of personal loss are plumbed √ all just beneath swirling arrangements. Away / Towards builds stunningly, propelling its way motorik-ly towards nine minutes, laying out the Hookworms stall perfectly. There's anger at play, with MJ releasing frustrations as the track works itself into a cosmic lather. Form and Function is another blinder, descending into almost white noise as it approaches its climax. It subsequently afterglows into i, which in turn bleeds into the evolving, almost soothing In Our Time. The mantra-like patterns of organ whirl beneath Since We Had Changed comprise a cleansing yet cathartic menace, atop which is deployed more noise. Preservation shifts from psychedelia into a punkier, screaming fury √ just in case you'd become too cosy amongst the bong-passing vibes. What We Talk About delivers Velvets-y tones, while ii is akin to the soundscaping of early Pink Floyd. These parallels, and more, convey the message that Pearl Mystic is an album that's somewhat out of time. Yet it's also very much of the now, too √ as previous acclaim for its makers goes to show. Hookworms could become something genuinely astonishing in a few albums' time, and Pearl Mystic is a fine foundation indeed. * Anyone who has seen Hookworms live knows that they are an enervating, entrancing, life-enhancing experience. The Leeds quintet create hypnotic, cathartic, discombobulating dance music through a disorienting combination of echo-swamped vocals, garage bred organ, fuzz-blitzed wah-wah guitars and constantly driving rhythms. It just sounds like so many rock & roll clichTs on paper, but these unassuming young men who rarely remove their coats and insist on only being known by their initials somehow make it completely new. You forget about your record collection and mental index of comparisons, and find yourself just stood in a small sweaty room with this vicious, compulsive noise swirling around you, and singer MJ stood at his keyboard screaming his lungs out about how "you're losing your face" and god knows what else. Broadly and correctly described as a psychedelic band, Hookworms are fans of Black Flag and US hardcore who deflect individual attention (hence the initials-only stance), show no desire to give up their day jobs, and enthusiastically muck in with the experimental DIY scene loosely centred on Nottingham's exemplary Gringo Records (the indie label on which Pearl Mystic is released). So far they've released a clutch of limited-run EPs, live cassettes and split seven-inches, but these offered little clue as to how well the occult fire of the gigs (because magic is too wimpy, too precious a term) would transfer onto their debut album. Well, fret no more. Pearl Mystic is that live bacchanal, focussed and given clarity but not compromised or cleaned up in any way- it was self-produced in MJ's own Suburban Studios, after all- and with a couple of newly-crafted curveballs thrown in for good measure. All you could wish for, in other words- and at 44 minutes, it even hits that "one side of a C90" classic perfect album length. It fades in with the epic 'Away Towards,' building slowly until the song finally crashes into life dead on the three minute mark, and every Loop / Stereolab move you thought was old and worn out suddenly becomes fresh and vital again. It's metronomic, but not droning; psychedelic, definitely, but shoegazing? Fuck, no - the vocals may be reduced to near-unintelligibility by the Roland space echo, but MJ looks you right in the eye throughout, his rallying cry of "Come on!" Iggy-defiant as each vertiginously-descending rollercoaster chorus kicks in, the song oscillating wildly with the acid evangelism and garage fervour of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators linked to Suicide's street punk, sci-fi nihilism. The call-and-response Velvet Underground swagger of 'Form and Function' follows; screaming desperation blistered and burnt in the body's own chemical maelstrom as the mind struggles to come to terms with rejection and loss. There's a loose lyrical theme of depression and break-up running throughout the album, and this song in particular feels like the endless internal dialogue of that situation that all the drink and drugs just can't block out; they just wrap it in distorted guitars and deep organ stabs, and if you're lucky hit you with just this level of warm fuzz overload so the pain seems almost pleasant and you stagger blithely into the opiated haze of 'i', a blanket of unconditional white noise that finally gives way in turn to the loping bass and needle-guitar prickling of 'In Our Time.' This is the album's first real wild card, a strung-out ballad that recalls Primal Scream at their most fractured and narcotic. It takes a while to love, but the decision to vary the pace on Pearl Mystic, in contrast to just replicating Hookworms' brain-frazzling live shows, was a wise one, and 'In Our Time' could prove to be one of the album's most rewarding tracks. Likewise the tambourine-driven pulse of 'Since We Changed,' which more closely resembles Spacemen 3 or Wooden Shjips, its shamanic healing trance repeatedly circling a core of contained pain, like the Doors' 'The End' as deconstructed by Sunburned Hand of the Man. Speaking of whom, what's the betting Hookworms were among the youngsters whose heads were turned and lives changed by those incredible Sunburned Hand live shows in the early noughties, their chaotic freeform ritualism offering a million possibilities that are still being acted out by the small and scattered provincial freak units who allowed themselves to be possessed by the capricious, maverick muse the Sunburned collective fleetingly summoned? The Raymond Carver referencing 'Preservation' blasts the light from the room, an armoured train careering through the Pennine sidings as Pudsey, Bradford, Halifax and Hebden Bridge are all immolated in apocalyptic rapture. Carver is nodded to again on 'What We Talk About,' pulling away from the ruins on blackened wings and gospel dreams, a repeated lament of "we say goodnight" hanging over slide guitar and organ intertwining without the slightest hint of retro reverence, just the sound of the view from the hill at night, the golden lights of Factory Town and the distant motorway roar. Pearl Mystic is the best British psychedelic album since the 1990s; maybe more than that. There are promises in its depths that will only be made good in the weeks, months, years to come. Hookworms don't strike a pose, go through the motions or indulge in narcotised narcissism, stoned mirror-gazing in leather trousers. They are useful, they are fierce and alive, they are nuanced and open, and every noise, every rhythm they create serves a purpose. That purpose is not to recreate other records, or other eras; it is to dislocate the present moment, and to wrench freedom from our self-made psychic prisons. In other words, Hookworms are the real thing. * Hookworms are a five-piece from Leeds who've cultivated a strong aesthetic built on independent values and ethics and a desire to focus strictly and purely on sound and the power of the music. They are entirely gimmick free and shun any sort of facile expression. For Hookworms, transcending the mundane through sound is all that matters. The lengths that the band go to in an effort to avoid pandering to an obsessive culture built on personality includes only using their initials and not divulging their names. While this may be something quite small, it is an indication of the sense of mystery that makes their debut album Pearl Mystic such a compelling record. It would be terribly easily to play a game of spot the musical influence with this album, but that would be doing a great disservice to Hookworms and their ability to make music that transcends all notion of reverential pastiche. There are distinct echoes of the drone rock of bands like Spacemen 3 or Loop, but the skill here is in how Hookworms take those influences and mesh them into brain melting, mind altering washes of sound. Produced solely by the band on a customary low budget, Pearl Mystic is an album that at once sounds loose and ragged and yet filled with bracing sonic power. If anything it sounds un-produced, an effect that gives the album an oddly captivating feel. Opening track Away/Towards is immediate evidence of Hookworms' outrT approach. It takes some gumption to open your debut with an eight and a half minute motorik trip. The first two minutes are given away to imperceptible echoes and drones before erupting in a sonic explosion akin to Primal Scream's more riotous moments circa XTRMNTR. It's a perfect mix between subtle and incendiary. The rhythmic power of the music is something to behold. Tracks like Form and Function are less perceptible melodic songs than great big hulking pieces of behemoth psych rock. The eastern tinged guitar and swirling organ sounds lift the music beyond anything recognisably rock in its trad sense to something far more interesting. Singer MB's invigorating screams are characterised by a pleasing carefree abandon. The album's nine tracks are punctuated by three instrumental soundscapes carefully placed throughout the record. These drone like interludes play a key role in linking the album into one evolving piece. It drifts seamlessly into the gorgeous, loping bass slumber of In Our Time perfectly. The heavily reverbed vocals used here are a key feature of Hookworms' sound. Even better is the following Since We Had Changed. The music here is even more somnolent and spaced out. Barely there at times, it transports you into a whole otherworld accompanied by mantra-like eerie organ. It's a piece relentless in its droning execution. There's a feeling throughout the album's not overly long 45 minutes that everything feels longer and more sprawling than it actually is. You easily become utterly immersed in the sound with its cumulative effect of blissful inertia; this is certainly the case on the psychedelic reveries that provide the album's highlights. Elsewhere, the music rattles by, powered along by an excellent rhythm section. Preservation is the most traditionally energised piece here, ending in rollicking swathes of guitar noise. The vocal cries of MJ are strangely reminiscent of Rage Against The Machine's Zack De La Rocha. He certainly comes across as an angry man but you're never entirely sure what he is railing against. In interviews before the album, he has stated that some of the themes deal with depression and declining relationships. This may be an exercise in catharsis but the largely imperceptible lyrics don't really carry this across. But the album's final main track is an exception to this largely obscured rule. On the lovely What We Talk About, MJ sounds bereft and exposed. His lyrics are at their most easily accessible as he delivers an off kilter but compelling vocal including the repeated line, "It's time to say goodnight". It provides a languid counterpoint to the mind warping experiments that precede it. Pearl Mystic really is a staggering debut. Hookworms are a band quite unlike anything the UK has produced for years. It's to their huge credit that they have made such an assured and immersive album on their own terms. -=- SHGZ -=- P.S. ** Thanks *** *** BCC FNT IPC SSR *** *** For Knowing Where The Music Is At *** --===-- ********************* * NuHS we miss you! * *********************