hood, "outside closer" ... anyone care?

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i bought this last week but only got round to listening to it today. probably my favourite thing they've done since "rustic houses", all pastoral post-folk meanderings inna vaguely organic talk-talk stylee, and much less self-consciously clever-clever than "cold house" (which i decided i liked less with every listen, but really should re-investigate). they're playing in glasgow this friday (18th) and i think i'll go down and check them out ... how the bloody hell they'll do this kinda thing justice live is anyone's guess.

problem is, though, they're one of those bands i just can't love, no matter how hard i try. there's something so distant, so removed, so prickly about them. pitchfork suggest this could be their last album, and i'm really not sure i can bring myself to care. which is a shame, considering i've been listening to them for eight years and have probably every song they've ever released. you'd think they'd have made more of an impact by now, wouldn't you?

anyone else heard the album? thoughts?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 14 February 2005 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

i love them. the album is great. I think everything they've done after cabled linear traction is great.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 14 February 2005 23:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Saw them last Friday and I know what you mean about them being hard to love. Was surprised by their live sound though, a lot louder and more conventionally song based than you'd expect. As for this being their last album, I interviwed Richard for a local freesheet and he seemed to be more than a little disillusioned with music. And that was the first night of their tour! Still, there was a big crowd there to see them.

― Ben Dot (1977), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 00:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I know what you guys are saying ... Hood are a band that I admire more than love. "Outside Closer" is solid but not spectacular, which is a comment I would apply to almost everything they've done throughout their career.

I saw them on the "Cold House" tour and thought they were much better live than on record. Live, those songs turned into motorik glitch-funk monsters.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I really enjoy Hood, I fully appreciate the 'hard to love' comments though. In ways they were about the only Disco Inferno-inspired band as such to follow on soon after them, though that's a bit of a stretch to be sure -- DI grappled with technology much more readily and more emotionally than Hood did but Hood's own experiments have been interesting.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 01:35 (twenty-one years ago)

i find it easy to love them. the new record is beautiful. i don't think it is as good as 'cold house' but it has the distant songs like on rustic houses but the cool cut-ups of the more recent stuff. It's not as good as the last remote viewer mini-lp but it's still pretty great!

― keith m (keithmcl), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 04:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Meh. I loved it on the first listen, but it didn't hold up. I still think "Negatives" in an awesome song.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 05:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i listen to it, i like it, i forget about it. i totally understand the point of the thread. it's almost like, howeever good it might be, it just seems kind of pointless. and that's not the first time i've thought that about Hood, including after i saw them support Clinic and had a massive pro-Hood revival which lasted about 5 minutes.

― fsharp (fsharp), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 12:34 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish i could make my mind up about west yorkshire. it seems too caught up in death and rain. i think i want to blow it up sometimes

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 12:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I like a couple of the songs on this (yep - 'Negatives' and 'The Lost You') but can't really summon up much enthusiasm for the rest of it I'm afraid. What happened here?? They used to be able to do the melancholy thing with so much grace - I'm thinking of moments on records like Cycles of Days & Seasons that felt like sudden shadows moving over your heart... now they seem all lost in this numb grey stupour. It's frustrating and I could understand them wanting to quit cos it sounds like they're going through the motions (x-post or West Yorks!).

That said, I'm off to see them next week, so I maybe they can pull one out of the bag yet. Last Brighton show I caught was a bit of a fiasco with them having to finish after a few songs cos the drummer had "drunk too much fizzy water" and was struck down with a bad case of the windypops. Not the stuff of rock'n'roll legend really...

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 12:53 (twenty-one years ago)

numb grey stupour

west yorkshire

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 13:09 (twenty-one years ago)

wow, i'd forgotten "the cycle of days and seasons" even exists. i have it somewhere, but i've no idea if it's on CD or vinyl; if i've ripped it; if i've even listened to it in the past few years. i certainly can't remember if i liked it or not.

i wish they'd done more stuff like "useless". ah well.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Search: 'Houses Tilting Towards The Sea'

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

i want to love hood way more than i do. but this record was a disappointment. :( love the stuff that's hidden away on all those motley 7"s and stuff.

― Sean M (Sean M), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

numb grey stupour
=

west yorkshire

especially Castleford

― Ben Dot (1977), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish they'd done more stuff like "useless". ah well.

me too. that song towers high over the rest of their catalogue

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

There are a few moments on the new album. I do prefer The Lost You Ep though.

― buck van smack (Buck Van Smack), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 04:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, someone help me here -- I was just listening to an album by someone, I know not who, that was quite great, and *might* have been Hood though I doubt it (singer seemed a touch too smooth, but this was only a matter of degrees). Thus the problem with unmarked mp3s (aside from an album title that was allegedly 'renoooooooooooo' if that helps). Ten tracks and here's the times of the songs:

AudioTrack 01 0:39
AudioTrack 02 3:43
AudioTrack 03 6:55
AudioTrack 04 5:11
AudioTrack 05 6:10
AudioTrack 06 4:41
AudioTrack 07 4:46
AudioTrack 08 4:26
AudioTrack 09 7:33
AudioTrack 10 2:36

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Those are the exact playing times of the new Hood, yes.

01 (Int) 00:39
02 The Negatives... 03:43
03 Any Hopeful Thoughts Arrive 06:55
04 End Of One Train Working 05:11
05 Winter 72 06:10
06 The Lost You 04:41
07 Still Rain Fell 04:45
08 L.Fading Hills 04:25
09 Closure 07:33
10 This Is It, Forever 02:36

― Roger in Mokum (Roger T), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Fuckin' brilliant! I wasn't positive but I was wondering why in the world I was loving it so much. Okay, count me in on the 'fantastic' camp on this album, I simply must see their show next month...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Was looking at the AMG entries for them earlier. Cycles still needs a write up, ahem...

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

*whistles idly*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish i could make my mind up about west yorkshire. it seems too caught up in death and rain.

Stop it, you're making Kyle want to move there!

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

ok, i was wrong about hood. saw them last night in glasgow and they were absolutely magnificent. a delicate storm of sound. probably the best thing i've seen in the past six months. perhaps watching them play demystifies their sound and makes them seem more human; whatever, they were utterly captivating.

their instrument-swapping is a thing to behold: a left-hander and a right-hander exchanging guitars and basses and proceeding to play them upside-down. impressive. and mighty, mighty use of the melodica.

they're also surprisingly funny. "any requests? except useless. what? [indistinct mumbling from crowd.] no, not that one either. we can't remember how to play that one." they ended up launching into something i vaguely recognised, despite the keyboardist waving frantically at the singer and trying to tell him how he didn't actually have the sounds for the song.

as some comedy funster yelled from the back: "hood are good!"

oh, and stuart from mogwai was down the front, sporting a MASSIVE comedy beard.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 19 February 2005 09:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Hood song titles arent really the sort of thing you want to yell out at gigs are they? Gave the new one another try and more tunes are growing on me... I might grow to love it yet.

Hood are co-subjects of the Listed feature in this weeks Dusted, which shows quite a neat divide in Chris and Richards respective tastes.

― NickB (NickB), Saturday, 19 February 2005 09:36 (twenty-one years ago)

it is definately a grower, it slowly wraps you in a thick and warm blanket. quite a pleasure with this wintery weather

― Rizz (Rizz), Saturday, 19 February 2005 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

saw them last night in glasgow and they were absolutely magnificent.

ARGH, I'm incredibly jealous since as it turns out they'll be playing LA when I'm in NY! Never seen them live and I was looking forward to that. Good to hear that they put on a fine show, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 19 February 2005 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Disco Inferno - DI go pop (Rough Trade)
I often lay back in bed at night and try and wonder what the hell Disco inferno were playing at with this album. The band had earlier been an effective ’90s update on the Joy Division blueprint. Things changed with the “Summers Last Sound” 12" when guitars were dropped to be replaced by samplers. Then came DI Go Pop - the band seemingly giving up completely on pop structures and instead attempting to batter their own senses with a barrage of cut up noise married to fuzzed-up Peter Hook basslines and the desperate yearning vocals of a man seriously pissed off with a country already heading towards decay. Now, I have to make an admission. When I first heard this record I hated it. It didn't make any sense. It still makes no sense to me today but now I love it maybe for that reason. It was bold, brash, metallic, seriously angry, desperately looking for something new. DI inhabit a world of pianos falling down stairs, vocals layered through a million effects where the sound of amplified sawing provides percussion. The only real bit of melody on the album comes on the final track “Footprints through Snow” which is brought to an abrupt end by a recording of a landlady telling the band to stop playing at her pub because she doesn't like the music. – Richard

Wunnerful, wunnerful. Thanks for that Dusted link, even if just for this! (It's not a surprising connection at all but it's great to see.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 19 February 2005 14:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, Richard is even more the dude:

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (Verve)
Back in my bleak college days one of my few pleasures in life was visiting the library where you could rent out tapes for the small price of 60p for a one week rental. Aaah, tapes, eh? Those were the days. Well, I had known Talk Talk from their sub Duran Duran pop days and the magnificent “Life is what you make it” and “It’s my life” singles that made the ’80s airwaves more bearable. My dad nearly had a heart attack when he had bought their previous commercial suicide album Spirit of Eden but I loved it. I had heard that Laughing Stock was bleaker. I wasn't prepared for how bleak or how slow or how cut up it was. It took me 10 listens and then it clicked. The little melodies coming in from seemingly nowhere, the shards of electric guitar - amazing drums, the sudden swelling warmth of the organ - a breakdown to near silence. The best track is “New Grass” which is simply the sound of a beautiful spring morning in an English village. As the years go by more and more bands are declaring their influence. The main lesson learned: great music isn't always immediate. Try, try and try again and maybe you will be rewarded. – Richard

But Chris likes Autechre and the Dead C and Thinking Fellers and THAT rules too. What a great band!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 19 February 2005 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

nine months pass...

I listened to this in the bath today - seemed appropriate given the chilliness outside. Half of it is simply fantastic, especially Any Hopeful Thoughts Arrive and Closure - two of the best songs of the year. A couple of tracks towards the end are pretty forgettable, but as a mood album it's excellent. Sad, desperate and beautiful.

― Cracks (Crackity), Sunday, 20 November 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

nine months pass...

Hood are on the evidence I've heard so far utterly, utterly brilliant. Rustic Houses... is a fine, fine record, and although all but one track (the opener) use the same a-b-c-a-b-c-a-b chord structure, this unity actually accentuates the subtleties and the minute changes of emphasis as the record goes along, before it caves in under the pressure and desperately rips your head off in one of the most uncontrolled, unpredictable and seemingly uncaculated 'noize moments' rock has ever had to offer.

Outside Closer is arguably even better. It has a good first half, but the killer is the second: from The Lost You onwards the record is unbeatable and tearjerkingly brilliant. TLY itself is one of the best songs of the 00's, with L Fading Hills not far behind. Such clarity of sound! Such whispered despair! Love it.

― Scourage (Haberdager), Thursday, 24 August 2006 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

ho! that's the second time in two days you've reminded me about an album i should go and listen to. thank you.

i think the problem with hood is that they went through a phase of recording absolutely fucking everything - every fart, burble and twang - which means there's a LOT of dross out there. i bought some kind of singles-collection thing a couple of years back and it was really quite hard-going. but when they're good, they are tremendous.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 24 August 2006 20:28 (nineteen years ago)

They're busy bees, to their credit. Wrote Richard earlier this year and he indicated they were all taking this year off, which is a sound approach from time to time, I'd think...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 24 August 2006 20:33 (nineteen years ago)

if it means they come back with something as good as "outside closer", i'm all for it.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 24 August 2006 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

Mmm, indeed. Here's hoping! They're on myspace...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 24 August 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

Someone should have gained cheap wittiness points by responding to the original question with 'The rest of us still care!'. Ah well.

― Scourage (Haberdager), Thursday, 24 August 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.myspace.com/hooduk

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 24 August 2006 20:41 (nineteen years ago)

They're a terribly boring live act in my experience. They make no effort to integrate the electronic elements either, i.e. they play a backing tape.

― jimnaseum - formalist rigour! (jimnaseum), Thursday, 24 August 2006 21:08 (nineteen years ago)

I think they're really good live but they do use a tape for some of that stuff. on the other hand, they aren't really an "electronic" act live, so I don't know how they'd do it any other way. They still rip the fuck out of "the field is cut" though.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 24 August 2006 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

as i posted upthread, i thought they were incendiary live.

They make no effort to integrate the electronic elements either, i.e. they play a backing tape

what, as opposed to prodding at a laptop? :)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 24 August 2006 21:28 (nineteen years ago)

Well that would be a start!
Heh, I just read upthread about the gig you were at, my mate put that on, I was working so I couldn't go.

― jimnaseum - formalist rigour! (jimnaseum), Thursday, 24 August 2006 21:32 (nineteen years ago)

There was no instrument swapping and no banter when I saw them. I'm disappointed.

― jimnaseum - formalist rigour! (jimnaseum), Thursday, 24 August 2006 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

i was surprised, i have to say. i imagined they'd be po-faced and miserable.

actually, i'm sure i saw them at the arches a few years previously, supporting mogwai. and i don't recall that being particularly legendary.

anyway, top work by your mate. fucking great gig, that.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 24 August 2006 21:51 (nineteen years ago)

I suppose I may have caught them on an off day. I've never really kept up with their recorder work but I had some stuff with Dose One from cLOUDDEAD on it and a few other tracks, one called "Let's paint the town dead" was really good if I remember correctly.

― jimnaseum - formalist rigour! (jimnaseum), Thursday, 24 August 2006 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

anyone care? yes, most definitely.

― dh (djh), Thursday, 24 August 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

argh argh ARGH I went to the record store the other day specifically looking for this album and then got distracted and totally forgot about it

All I've heard by them is Cold House, which I got 'cuz of the doseone connection, and eventually I had one of those "This is totally brilliant; why have I owned this for a year now and not bought anything else by this band?" moments.

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Friday, 25 August 2006 13:41 (nineteen years ago)

four months pass...

Just been looking round Fopp for an album, after half an hour's 'meh' i caught sight of 'the cycle of days and seasons'. it was one of those "OMG I AM SO GETTING THIS" moments. the opening 30 seconds of the album are brilliant. a fuller report to follow later.

― to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Friday, 19 January 2007 18:37 (nineteen years ago)

Meantime Gareth Brown's solo album Iron Henry is quite good...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 January 2007 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

this was a good record. i should put it back on my ipod.

― marc h. (marc h.), Friday, 19 January 2007 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

oh hey right, this record

it was okay, but I prefer Cold House by a mile

― Bernard Snowy (sixteen sergeants), Friday, 19 January 2007 20:06 (nineteen years ago)

five months pass...

okay, I've just now come around on this one. it's weird; it really does sound like Talk Talk, and I really love Talk Talk, but somehow I didn't enjoy this at all because I was expecting something more like their last album. but then today I put it on and went "hey wait, parts of this sound a lot like Talk Talk" and so now I'm cool with it. but not quite. Talk Talk is warm and open and honest and this is all so oblique, and you don't realize it at first but that song where he just keeps singing "so much for the honest man" is actually kind of terrifying.

― bernard snowy, Friday, 22 June 2007 02:21 (eighteen years ago)

Like I said before, this is a fantastic record, and the last five tracks are fucking unimpeachable (especially The Lost You through L.Fading Hills). Still prefer Rustic Houses, if only because it's such a stunning single artistic statement, but this has arguably higher highs. It's a bit better than, say, The Cycle of Days And Seasons.

― Just got offed, Friday, 22 June 2007 02:28 (eighteen years ago)

okay wait I am now listening to Cold House and it has all the things I liked about Outside Closer + Doseone. maybe I was just craving some Hood.

― bernard snowy, Friday, 22 June 2007 02:39 (eighteen years ago)

hmm there are tracks I don't really recognize or enjoy on Cold House. I guess maybe I had mentally combined all the best parts of both into one killer album?

― bernard snowy, Friday, 22 June 2007 03:01 (eighteen years ago)

haha, that's kinda what I have on my iTunes! fucking hell, though, killer doesn't even begin to describe it.

― Just got offed, Friday, 22 June 2007 03:17 (eighteen years ago)

man i love me some cold house, ESPECIALLY that "winter hit so hard" song that sounds like falling through a frozen lake

― babedad, Friday, 22 June 2007 05:24 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

Cycle Of Days And Seasons makes more and more sense with every listen. If Rustic Houses was their black metal release, this is their fever-dream.

― Just got offed, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 12:29 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

^^^really want to pimp this idea of Hood as EBM

― country matters, Monday, 27 July 2009 22:17 (sixteen years ago)

three months pass...

the hood albums have come out for autumn ...

― djh, Monday, 2 November 2009 20:33 (sixteen years ago)

Was just getting around to ripping all these the other day.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 2 November 2009 20:34 (sixteen years ago)

three years pass...

holy shit, have only just now gotten around to the early stuff (i.e. Silent '88)

it's fucking incredible

― ghosts of lower belvedere high technology sludge incinerator (imago), Thursday, 6 June 2013 22:49 (twelve years ago)

yeah i love it. the first one Cabled Linear Traction is good too. Plus they have loads of eps from that era like 'Biochemistry Revision Can Wait', 'Useless' etc..

― cajunsunday, Friday, 7 June 2013 11:47 (twelve years ago)

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