ninehertz

I have struggled with the balance between listening with my joy of music and with critical reviewer hat on with this album, having been through it several times now. It is a challenge at the best of times, but here I found the more I was looking for words to describe what I was hearing, the more I felt I was missing out through disassociation. I purposefully moved away from my keyboard on several occasions simply to enjoy it as any normal person would.

Which is a long way of saying, this review won’t be up to much – expect lazy comparisons and basic thesaurus-fuelled variations of “amazing” [so not unlike most of your reviews you say? sod off you cheeky so and so] and uninformative in terms of detail – but I feel compelled to write something in case there’s a chance one person reading this might listen who mightn’t have otherwise. So, forgive me. There’s a good chance you know of Human Leather already, a Brighton “noise-rock, sludge-punk two-piece thing” who have already proven their worth, but this debut full length exceeds expectations.

Yeah, it really is something this. After a four second intro, it is straight in to its stride with Dark Depths and Surface Tension, loud and abrasive and danceably joyous. Easy comparisons to Lightning Bolt abound. Existence is Not a Solo Sport follows and showcases a key element of the album – it is riotously heavy at times, and brilliantly energetic.

I could go through track by track, but I’d be adding little. Maybe a quick point to say that Momentary Masters Of A Fraction Of A Dot reminds me of one of my favourite albums ever – Here Comes the Waterworks – with the blazing Big Business bluster [generic rock duo simile klaxon sets off again] also heard on the wonderful League of Gentlemen titled It's A Shit Business, Glad I'm Out Of It.

So, there we have it – it’s as good as I gushingly say it is. I can’t add anything else as I need to get back to jumping around my living room to it. Go find out for yourself.