It’s been quite a while now since I last reviewed a local music release, but I’m back with a vengeance! What better place to start than the awesome Love 2: The Sequel To Love from electro-psych trio Deep Hum. A band I have been lucky to catch live, listen to and even book shows for over the years, so I made sure to grab myself a physical copy on day one of its release.
The album opens with Walk On grabbing my attention immediately with its hypnotic rhythms and sampling reminiscent of Public Service Broadcasting with a swirl of ominous sitars and guitar wails. The bassline is funky, but this is far from a funk track. It’s a psychotronic jam essentially that is using its haunting melodies and motorik rhythm to tell an evocative story without words. Look! is another track that carries over similar vibes with a wicked synth line and an almost Tom Petty-like guitar tease into something which is more closely related to a band like CAN or Jimi Hendrix if they replaced his brain with a toastie maker. We got a bit of distorted vocals that sit underneath a swell of droning splendour on Statement of Intent which dives into a Squarepusher-like drum assault. This album has a very distinct sound and approach which aren't your typical song structures, these are more like epiphanies for a desolate sci-fi fantasy movie that was never allowed to be made. I dig it a lot!
There is an ambiguous concept running throughout the album based around the topic of love and The Story Of Love starts to glue it together with a lengthy monologue from our album’s protagonist. I don’t want to give too much away as this is an album I feel needs to be listened to as one cohesive piece of work rather than one song at a time, but I will do my best to dissect things as best as I can as we continue regardless. Love Jam kicks back up the funky flavour that dissipates into an infections dub bass line and those gorgeous sitar sounds sailing overhead. The longest track on the album packs in as much spiralling sound experimentation as it possibly can, the same with the next track, June Lover which introduces some flamenco-styled guitar over a percussive backbeat. Soon kicking back into an aggressive '90s baggy-esque play-about.
Snaresmusher with its great name harks back to what I said earlier about a certain electronic wizard signed to Warp Records and does its job well with those otherworldly textures and synthstrumentation. We continue with Kingdom of Love and it’s dedication to being as frantic as it is calm and unnerving in equal measure, finishing off with the confident tumble and spacious elegance of Squircle, the song with a playfully eerie vocal line as the electronics levitate in the background.
Overall, this is an experience. An album made with enough precision and care that it sounds like a band who are simultaneously existing in the past, present and future all at once. If you like your '60s psychedelia as well as late '90s IDM with a flair for aural invention, you’ll find nowhere better than this new release from these South Wales-based sonic auteurs.
Check out the album here ↓
https://bramblescram.bandcamp.com/album/love-2-the-sequel-to-love
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Also, please check out this fantastic live session they did recently for Shonk Session's first episode:
- The KEXP of South Wales underground musicians
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