Stream: Hear Hums “Malaise”

11 Apr 2014 — Noah Klein

There’s a subtext to every Hear Hums album that’s innately political, whether it be an engagement with the politics of self, subconscious, collective context, industrial food complex, nationalism, and tbh this list can go on for quite awhile. Where most of today’s bedroom-recorded musicians tend to go silent Hear Hums pick up and embrace the anxiety-inducing dialogue as creative fuel. So Malaise, by definition a general feeling of discomfort, might be the first Hear Hums release thus far where their frustration is tangible.

Hear Hums are a band of little compromise. Their ethics are as solid as they come and their knowledge of how to navigate their tools and articulate their resources is strikingly unique to the traditions they surpass. It’s mesmerizing. When you pierce Malaise’s “Veil” the Hums’ sound spelunkers Kenzie Cooke and Mitch Myers (also Peace Arrow) have built one prophetic ride, an album to ever grow into rather than casually appreciate from an aerial view. With seven of ten pieces pushing well beyond a five minute mark it becomes difficult to discern where there is transformation versus a new foundation, where motifs intersect versus a new chapter developing from the narrative. It’s actually self-realizing, for to internalize the journey that Malaise intends to offer one has to accept and understand the ideologies that Hear Hums have come to represent; both in their output as a collaborative project and in their respective endeavors. It’s what gives agency to what could otherwise be mistaken for a beautiful album frolicking on the darker side of a sound palette.

Put this album on while you’re folding zines, building circuits, tending to your garden, or just making tea in the morning. It’s at once a mind cleanser and an inspired challenge. You can download Malaise from Hear Hums’ bandcamp for a donation of your choosing, because fuck capitalism, and if you find yourself in Gainesville, Florida some day I highly recommend dropping into the Radical Press Coffee Collective in the Civic Media Center to say hi to Kenzie and Mitch. They’ll most likely be your volunteer caretakers and will gladly chat Zapatistas, co-op movements, and Florida’s diverse and brilliant music communities.

(Photo by Emily Reo)