HOZOMEEN
The Void LP
01. Involuntary Man's Laughter
02. Call The Hogs
03. Lack
04. Coursing
05. One Kilohertz
06. Balk
07. Cleansing Breaths
08. Manifestation Of Grief
A mean, moody, minimalist piece of noise-rock by our old friend Graham Thompson who is/was in a slew of class bands in the Newcastle area, including but not limited to Jinn, Grace, OZO, Ballpeen, Jimmy Floyd Haisselband and Sea Ninety. Graham did practically everything on this, from the writing, performing and recording so it's very much his baby. A tense, dark approach to repetition coupled with effective, nasty riffing propels this classy bit of noise-rock.
Released May 5th, 2023
Limited to 100 copies on black vinyl.
Reviews
We don't know how or why, but we often get requests from England and New Zealand. We're flattered, but, as we try to warn, when reviewing our locals we give them the benefit of the doubt (mostly b/c we want free tickets and vinyl and t-shirts), but we hold national and international artists to a higher standard. You've been warned.
Hozomeen is Graham Thompson and Graham Thompson, we assume, is Hozomeen. He writes and performs in various groups in the Newcastle upon Tyne area of England that we assume are in the noise rock vein/genre (because we have expressed our affection for that kind of music from that particular area before).
Based on the description we were expecting Hozomeen to be far more arty and less enjoyable then it is. To be blunt, it ROCKS. In the way that say Whores., Shellac, Jesus Lizard, and other rhythmic noise/sludge rocks. There are cogent, sludgey riffs. There is loud sing saying. There are noisey passages on fairly traditional rock instruments. It also approaches earlier variants of post-hardcore and sludge such as Quicksand and Helmet.
It begins with Laughter. An evolving piece of feedback, uncertain drums, muddy quotes, and the dulcet tones of a banjo. From there it launches into The Hogs, a driving sludge-noise masterpiece, complete with loudly sung-spoken vocals. Then on into the instrumental Lack, a tricky rhythmic piece of post-hardcore that goes everywhere you don't expect it to but really should. Coursing takes us further down the ride of post-hardcore noise, enticing with atonal arpeggios and straight up harshly isolated tribal drumming, heading into all out chaotic frenetty (no that's not a word, we made it up. It works here. Trust us).
One Kilohertz teases like an old Unsane or newer Hey Colossus song; it really is impressive how Thompson gets a really full noise band song playing as he is each instrument solo (or so he tells us). The vocals come on like Part Chimp or intense Tool, Torche, or some other metal hybrid that's sung shouted right on key.
The Balk moves on in Whores. vein, all low end, and a few Jesus Lizard/Denison type arpegiatted fifths for good measures until it erupts into wails of guitars and horns screeching. Cleansing breaths wouldn't be out of place on a mid period Polvo record, with its dulcet celestial tones, dry as a bone atmosphere and creeping rhythm. The rhythm picks up and creepy loud breathing emerges before a wall of dissonant single note guitars play a slow transcendent metal passage, at which point the rhythm settles in and riffs wail and wallow you into a lull. You leave the arena with distorted drums, bells, and whistling feedback.
Manifestation of Grief is the final slow death march of low end feedback giving way to organ like wails of effected guitars and synths, followed by a harrowing passage of gloom and spoken words that wouldn't be out of place on a Planning for Burial record.
Songs tend to be on the, shall we say 'prog' end of the time spectrum; clocking in at a minute to 8 minutes. And the all go on for only as short or as long as they need to, never letting the listener down by (as so often sludgey noise does) repeating a passage too long or not giving birth to a new direction.
In short, despite our warning, we LOVE this record. The atmosphere, the gloom, the precedents it takes its cues from, SUPERB. We look forward to hearing more in the future. This is why we do this.
- Times Boredom
Multi-instrumentalist Graham Thompson prepares to release his latest solo project under the moniker of Hozomeen this month. Having been a fixture on the region's music scene for over 25 years, and known for his work with hardcore trio Ballpeen as well as a slew of other bands including Grace, Gullich and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaind, his new album The Void is a heavy and experimental slab of sound.
Compared to the rest of his discography, The Void leans more into noise rock than hard rock, as Thompson cleverly experiments and pushes the limitations of the genre, while playing every instrument and building on the lessons he learnt from his previous work. "I knew I could do an album by myself." He says. "It's challenging and very time consuming, but I really like the whole process, and I like that I can be in charge of it all."
Although he does admit that working on a project by yourself can become daunting. "Having played music for so many years, I had a good idea of how to approach this album and achieve the sounds I was looking for; knowing the right guitars to use, which songs I'd like the drums to have more room than others, where to mix the instruments... I'm pleased with how it all sits together and that I had this blank canvas to try new things."
The Void is fantastically engaging listen; the listener is overwhelmed with blunt and aggressive instrumentation, with drumbeats that could invigorate anyone to battle and riffs that will tear through your speakers, on top of more alternative instrumentation woven throughout.
An example of this is the use of guitar feedback throughout the LP, most notable on Call The Hogs. "It was a conscious effort to include feedback as I wanted certain parts of songs, or whole songs, to be a bit jarring or uncomfortable. I used different guitars with different pick ups to achieve different types of feedback, I have one guitar in particular that is really cheap and as a result the cheap pickups squeal quite nicely."
Thompson is most proud of this effect on Manifestation in Grief: "It ended up sounding like a synthesiser, but it's actually a series of single notes on the guitar feeding back to make it sustain that I then fashioned into chords when mixing. To me the feedback doesn't sound like guitars at all and I'm really pleased with how it came out, the song almost sounds a bit John Carpenter-esque and I had no idea how it would sound until it was finished."
Thompson found the biggest challenge he faced in producing the album himself related to lyricism. "I have a notebook where I jot down ideas, but the well is fairly dry. With this album there were songs I felt needed vocals. For One Kilohertz I had an idea of where to place the vocals, how I wanted them to sound and had a few lines of lyrics, but that was it. So, when it came time to do the vocals, I literally had to pull something together on the spot. I usually work better when I'm under the pressure of time and it's a good example of this."
- Jake Andersen, Narc Magazine
There's an identifiable type of noise rock that sounds, above all else, weary: beaten down by life, just about keeping its exasperation from boiling over. That doesn't really read like a compliment, but it's intended as one, certainly in this case. HOZOMEEN, a one-man project from northeast England, has this sound locked down. At its most effervescent, it sounds like the JESUS LIZARD after they got big but before they signed to a major label; elsewhere, the riffs are similarly big and hulking, but slower, like when you drag your own sagging carcass out to face the day. Not doom metal or slowcore, but on speaking terms with those things, and "One Kilohertz" is on an unmistakable MELVINS tip. There are some guest trumpet parts and unorthodox, maybe even dub-influenced production touches if you listen carefully. Graham Thompson, who is HOZOMEEN, has been in a solid list of bands over twenty-something years (thrashcore in JINN and NEUROSIS-via-hardcore in GRACE are the two I'm most familiar with) and has hit on something really neat here.
- Noel Gardner, Maximum Rock 'N' Roll