By: Matt Butler
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This album proves that you don’t need to travel in the same ripe tour van for weeks on end to be a ‘proper’ band. For that matter, it seems that you don’t have to even share the same space. Or know each other.
Make no mistake, hd hausmann is a collective, despite the singular sounding name. True, it is driven by one man who goes by the name of LP, but this is definitely not the work of a multi-instrumentalist (a phrase which, incidentally, brings me out in a rash). But, according to LP, the vocalist and lyricist, “almost everything was done in isolation”. That means the vocals were recorded in Manchester, the drums in London, the piano worked in without the player hearing what they were accompanying and horn players found online.
But what this disparate group of people have come up with is a beautiful album of haunting melody, at times tense but still containing passages of comforting tenderness. In short, something a proper band would be proud to produce.
‘Old Satellites’ starts the album and its repetitive electronic pulsing provides a nice juxtaposition to LP’s rich, gruff, semi-spoken vocals. The song builds and the crescendo of pulsing electronics reaches a zenith accompanied by a tentative guitar and a voice choir – or is it a string section? – before it dissipates.
‘An Island Within’ follows and warm synth pads dominate. It is one of two on the album set to a strangely jaunty 3/4 waltz time signature, along with the penultimate track, ‘In Our Wake’.
The third song, ‘To the Loveliest Ocean’ is a more traditionally structured, verse-chorus number and after the other-worldliness of the first two, the listener is forgiven for wondering whether someone has changed radio stations. The lyrics are heartfelt, the acoustic melody sweet, but it suffers from being a little… normal.
Which makes the sparse, distorted electronic percussion of the almost-title track ‘Wring Moisture From the Surf’ which has the air of an industrial sea shanty, very welcome indeed. Conversely, the lush middle section of ‘As the World Lays Down’ is as rich as a chocolate torte and has a similar vein of bitterness running through it to add to the satisfaction.
‘In Our Wake’ is another acoustic track and is in the same vein as ‘Loveliest Ocean’ – it is quickly forgotten when the atmospheric closer ‘I am Here and I am Cold in the Water’ begins. The muffled electro soundscapes that make up the verse give way to shimmering keys and a melody that tugs like crazy on your heartstrings in the chorus. A 21st-century ‘Atmosphere’ – the Joy Division song, rather than the stuff surrounding the earth – was the first thing that sprang to mind when the chorus burst into my ears.
It’s a nice way to finish and by the end of this seven-track album you’re left with the impression that this is a band with a good ear for melody and a healthy desire to experiment with sounds, as well as the concept of what constitutes a song. And a band is what they are. Even if they never end up standing in the same room.
