BAND OF THE WEEK: Hull of Light
Five awesome musicians from five awesome bands join up to make another awesome band. Shocker.
Recognise any of these people? Don’t worry if you don’t, they’re purposefully obfuscated, not just in image but in the initials they use that don’t necessarily match up with how we know them from their other musical endeavours (though a little bit of mixing’n’matching will get you there if you know the bands well and if you really need to have a who’s who), but just rest assured it is a luxurious ensemble of insanely creative individuals who aren’t afraid to mess with the weird shit. A “multi-coastal international collective of cosmic cowboys and cowgirls with members from Megason, Suffering Hour, Zeresh, Underground Spiritual Game & Sleepwalker [夢遊病者],” and you’re allowed to pause this and go google the hell out of any of those names that are less familiar to you, because you really need to. Lest I remind you that, for instance, 夢遊病者 got a kind of nice position on my albums of the year list of 2023.
Anyway, these cowgirls/boys all got together last year (well, creatively, at least, since this new release was “tracked at undisclosed locations under guise of the pale moon and burning sun” - and if you remember how the greatly missed Babylon Whores used to address their fans on their website, it was just like this, and I love it), for which we apparently owe Machine Music a few thank yous (cheers Ron!), and after a track on a compilation, the result we are faced with now is this twenty minute mindbender called ‘Gilded Liminal Shrines’, four tracks that brazenly defy any futile attempts to label them anything concrete. Just when you think you got it, it swerves in another direction, but that’s fine - rather than just calling it “experimental post-punk” or some such silliness, it’s better to describe what they do to you. Psychedelic is a way to put it, mainly in the disorientation provided by the happy frolicking through genres - not that it’s ever oh-my-god-such-mad-music!, but the combination is the key. You never know when that jazzy groove will shapeshift into a weird black metal bit or a foot-tapping 70s rock head-bopper, and it’s not that they’re different parts, stuff just flows in a continuum that is hard to explain. It is, it’s fucking hard to explain, which is a little frustrating, because whatever you end up saying about it it makes it seem like this is very complicated music and it really isn’t - in fact, one of the coolest things about this EP is that it sounds refreshingly simpler and more spontaneous and uncluttered that most others that try an approach like this. So why don’t we do a Fenriz, stop talking too much, and just listen to the thing? We even got one of these creatures to talk to us, so if you seek explanations and clarity, thou shalt have them from the horse’s mouth, as it were, after the jump.
You can find Hull of Light on Bandcamp.
’Gilded Liminal Shrines’ is out now and it’s free for download on the link above.
Check out ‘MILIM KASHOT VOL.5’, the Machine Music compilation where it all started, here.
“We had more of a yeehaw attitude with producing this work.”
— LS
What are the origins of Hull of Light, how did the project start? What were the intentions you guys had for it, did you have any musical direction in mind?
LS: The initial conversations started through Ron over at Machine Music—there was a mutual respect between YhA (Suffering Hour) and I, not to mention we were born on the same day some many years apart. Synchronicity was in the proverbial room. The only thing we really spoke about was that we wanted this band or project to feel different than our main endeavors.
In fact, given what I’ve heard on this EP, I feel like asking if you guys actually have a musical direction in mind right now. Opinions seem to divide on what to call this music from the comments I’ve read on several outlets, and I’m a bit bothered by the seemingly catch-all properties that “post-punk” has right now. Someone called it “anti-black metal” and that was fun, but I don’t know. Is this even a question?
LS: Catch-alls are comfortable – we had more of a yeehaw attitude with producing this work. We come from quite different worlds; RL operates in the jazz sphere so the bow and the upright were conscious choices; RC is an actively touring musician and studio owner with a propensity for everything between noise rock and world music: TS’s work spans the gamut of ambient industrial to gothic dark folk. What happens when those gunslingers have a standoff and the elements converge is transpired on the tape. I imagine Carl McCoy had a spiritual hand in this along with D.Dale and R. Gallina riding into the sunset on a bat-shaped Czechoslovakian chopper.
The scattered nature of the recording that you mentioned suggests a fragmented kind of process, which is natural given the international nature of the lineup. Was the writing also a similarly displaced work? Was it hard to do it like that, if that was the case? Or was it even appropriate to the music in question?
LS: For the splintered nature of the geographies, it was quite a clean blade in the end. Basically, it started with the Nash guitar in the left speaker with some basic sequencing and fills. I tracked some analog synths to add some dimension and space, and we did an overnight session with RC in June of 2023; all the drums in the sessions were the first takes with literally 1 edit of a snare hit in a track; no tape splicing. RL tracked the upright and then YhA went ape on the guitar in the right speaker. Lyrics came within the week and the vocals for ‘Sun’ and ‘Soul’ wrapped the following week. We sent off the two songs to Ron for the 5th installment of his compilation series by November. He had to choose which one to use. By April TS was wrapping vocals for all four tracks. In my opinion it completely elevated everything tenfold. In May 2024 the record was live.
Comparing it to other music most of you guys have done, this sounds… I hesitate to call it that, but more… direct? Simpler, though it’s not simple at all? Spontaneous, I guess? Lo-fi, punch-in-the-gut, kinda-thing? With a bit of hindsight, does it feel like that to you at all?
LS: It’s leaner. There is not too much peripheral instrumentation to the construction of how this was played which contributes to what you’re feeling in the guts. I became somewhat ill tracking the vocals here; it was important for it to feel sincere and present. So maybe calling it (post) punk is not far off. You know how we feel about genre though!
’Sun’/’Soul’/’Savage’/’Sanctuary’. What can you tell us more about the conceptual nature behind these 4S? Did you throw philosophy and bullshit in equal measure at each other before, or did the elusive meaning of this only reveal itself during the actual writing of the music, if at all?
LS: There are some deep connections to the Compilation as that was the impetus. Ron and I talked about the nature of the artwork and the series of paintings of these sculptures and how something so unassuming, angelic or almost sweet on the surface can have such a dark nucleus. This felt like an apt parallel to this music; you have to dig in the dirt to reach a force inside. The text has some sarcasm, but it is not cynical or apathetic. It is a world on fire, the remnants of which are uncertain. If we survive the nuclear winter, what is the cost? What if there are no second chances? Will there be a turn to humanity finally, or simply more violence? Will we become vessels of light, or these emaciated twisted hulls that are formless and vacant. We serve no answers but we’ll gladly ask the questions. ”But there’s just one thing I wanna know… How’s that damn three seashell thing work?”
What’s the plan now? Do more stuff with this beast you’ve created? Have you thought about playing live?
LS: This would be fun to play live, man. As YhA put it “Watch out for us and our only EP; We'll show em how the one-and-done is properly executed“ in response to a recent feature, haha. No allusions. If we pull something from the wind, it all would be a win. We’re thankful as is. Did have a thought about a follow-up, who knows what the cards hold. All I know is that every release should feel like the last; then the stakes are much higher.
What has been the response to the project so far? Do you notice that it’s mostly people who follow your other entities that have flocked to you guys first, or might you actually be creating a new army of weirdos who like this?
LS: We have really good friends, man - present company included. That’s the bottom line. When this was being developed, and when it finally was released quite a bit of folks shared it. Steelworks Resmini championed it. Ron - forgetaboutit, without him it wouldn’t happen. Tamar has been a godsend. MJ from Thunraz encouraged me to actually sing on these tracks; Skronk Brigade Philly/Jersey Chapter - Pete and Doug; B. Sloan and Helm from convulsing and Locust Leaves gave deep thoughts on the sonics and lyrics. Any response feels great, let alone folks that follow the other bands. Always gratitude. Always advocacy. Thank you.
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