Silent '88

Hood

Silent '88

SLR 59 » released September 1996

formats » LP/CD
status » out-of-print

DIGITAL » eMusic |  Amazon
1. The Field Is Cut 14. Intro
2. Hood Northern 15. Documenting Crop Rotations
3. Delusions of Worthlessness 16. I Hate You Now
4. At Last! Riots on Spofforth Hill 17. Her Innocent Stock of Words
5. _ 18. Trust Me, I'm A Stomach
6. Rural Colours 19. Resonant 1942
7. Western Skies 20. Sometimes I Worry
8. Deny Deny Deny 21. _
9. Smash Your Head On The Cubist Jazz 22. Downpour
10. The Hidden Ambience of a Lost Art 23. The Fields Are Divided
11. Being Beaten Up 24. Love Is Dead But Never Buried
12. Silent '88 25. Empty Canvas
13. Outro 26. The Silent Years

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.

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