Hood
Silent 88

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Sound clips for Silent 88 by Hood: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, Slumberland, SLR59, £8.19.

What their label says...

Hood are an excellent band from Leeds, UK who have been cutting a very individual swathe through the indie/lo-fi/experimental underground for the going on 20 years now. They've released uncounted singles and five full-length albums over the course of this varied career, and have seen collaborators and ex-band members go on to such impressive projects as Famous Boyfriend, Empress, Remote Viewer and Downpour. Their debut album Cabled Linear Traction is one of our favorite Slumberland albums, having been originally issued in a tiny edition of 200 by Fluff and re-issued by us in 1995 on vinyl and 1999 on compact disc.

At first grouped-in with the innovative crew of UK post-rockers such as Third Eye Foundation, AMP and Flying Saucer Attack, they've outlasted that whole scene and "space-rock" in general and moved on to far more original areas. Hood's mastery of unsettling ambience and subbed-out soundscapes places them up there with Disco Inferno and Bark Psychosis, and they combine this sound with skewed song-writing in the Xpressway/ Siltbreeze tradition and the sparse electronics of labels like Warp and City Centre Offices.

Silent '88 was the second Hood album, released in 1996 to widespread acclaim. From the twisted rock of "Hood Northern" and "Smash Your Head On The Cubist Jazz" to the hushed folk of "I Hate You Now" to the numerous ambient interludes to the junglist abstraction of "Resonant 1942", Silent '88 pushed hard at the boundaries of experimental rock while still being firmly within the rock framework. Wildly varying and endlessly challenging, this is the sound of band searching for (and finding) their own voice. The Hood vision is so personal and so unique that sonic comparisons have become increasingly useless, and Silent '88 stands as one of the key steps in their development. Check it out.