Monday, May 12, 2014

Track Of The Day : The Altered Hours - Dig Early




Never is there a more pleasing experience than when a new track is dropped on you, and amidst a lot of fair-to-middling and the inevitable dross there is the occasional little gem that sparkles like the Cullinan diamond itself.

Come in psych rockers The Altered Hours. In first pressing 'play' on the video to 'Dig Early', the new single from the Irish five-piece from Cork City, it was more in the expectation that 'stop' may be hit in under a minute. In the event, it was not 'stop' that was pressed but 'repeat, repeat, repeat'.

The appeal of the five minutes of 'Dig Early' lies not so much in its lyrical content - which is sparse in the extreme, consisting of dual male and female vocals chanting the same two world-weary, yet defiant lines: "Sometimes I feel like I could dig an early grave / sometimes I wish that I could lie down and feel safe" - but in the larger instrumental component which exists in one massive swirl of psychedelic Krautrock drones that is part TOY, part Cold Pumas; a driving and relentless pulse against screeching, reverb-drenched guitar.

'Dig Early'/'Cracks in the Light (live)' is out now on Art For Blind.

The Altered Hours' next live date is opening for The Brian Jonestown Massacre at 02 Academy, Dublin on July 9.

The Altered Hours are: Cathal MacGabhann (vocals/guitar), Elaine Howley (vocals/synth/percussion), Kevin Terry (guitar), Patrick Cullen (bass), Nora Lewon (drums).


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