I’ve had Hank on my radar since their enigmatic and weird “3/4” on the Slow Dance compilation from early this year. Weird, experimental and noisy, but it sounded like a band with big ideas:
Over the last few months we’ve gotten a couple of glimpses of the band, and they are embracing the ultra-current post-punk sound, with distinctive his-and-hers vocals on the chorus. In June we got “Angel Says”, moody and atmospheric, with a distinctive chainsaw-guitar hook and a memorable chorus:
Last month they followed it with the video for “DYLM”, which is a little more conventional, but every bit as compelling. It’s grungy, shoegazey, and melodic, featuring yet another earworm of a chorus:
Today the full EP Twist Grip is out, with two new tracks, “Pull It Off” and “Ranthrublue”, and it gives a more complete picture of the band. “Pull It Off” uses the back-and-forth vocal more than we’ve heard previously in a more aggressively-styled alt-rock song that plays with tempo and time in creative ways, while “Ranthrublue” dials the speed down and the reverb up before spiraling into a noisy climax to close out the record.
Their Bandcamp lists eight band members – including four guitar players and two on bass, and you see them all at the end of the video for “Angel Says”. It’s unclear if they’re a Broken Social Scene-type ‘collective’ or what, but I’ve had this record on all morning and I can’t get enough of their sound.
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