"Hemlock is absolutely back, ready to urge you out of daylight savings towards Halloween and beyond"
As we enter a period of anticipated returns in the music industry, there is the unexpected double rainbow of Hemlock‘s first release since 2017, with a twin pack EP from a Beneath who is also similarly breaking a stretch of a good few years away from the production treadmill.
These years quickly melt away as you listen to ‘On Tilt‘ start to lose yourself in the rasping gothic basslines and sparse angular production. However, almost like spotting the glint amongst the murk when panning for gold, there is a mischievous sprightliness happening here.
A trio of tracks – ‘A Shrill Manner‘, ‘Bone Hum‘ and ‘The Passage‘ – are taut and alluringly positioned between house and techno, ready to push dark tension one way and pull frosty clarity the other. They are absolutely visceral experiences, flesh and bones, with the elements being depth of the bass at one end, the scratchy percussion and ghostly melody at the other, with you, the listener, caught frozen in the middle.
‘Dark Waters‘ and ‘Lesser Circulation‘ go towards the primal fear driven realm of lucidity. The tempo is dropped but anxious double time creeps in, like pressing through a skeletal autumn woodland as the sun dips. At times you feel like you are keeping the peripheral fear away with adrenaline alone, with a combination of a strongly beating heart and sharp shallow breathing.
Then, in-between all of this considerable atmosphere, ‘Shambling‘ stands alone with its trill melody as a sole beacon of light as the moment of respite. But be under no illusions here, Hemlock is absolutely back, ready to urge you out of daylight savings towards Halloween and beyond.
‘On Tilt’ EP is out now via Hemlock Recordings. Order a copy from Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
1. A Shrill Manner
2. Bone Hum
3. Shambling
4. Dark Waters
5. The Passage
6. Lesser Circulation