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Review: 'Hanterhir'
'The Saving Of Caden'   

-  Label: 'Easy Action Records'
-  Genre: 'Post-Rock' -  Release Date: '27.7.18.'-  Catalogue No: 'EARS 133'

Our Rating:
Hanterhir are at the forefront of the Redruth scene although scene might be pushing it, as they are from deepest Cornwall and making music as there is little else to do except farm and surf so they recorded this double album or 5 sides of Vinyl in a Methodist Chapel, a Llama farm a cricket club and a recording studio.

From the opening almost 10 minute sprawl of Hello Sunshine it's obvious they don't do things by half this is part prog opera part Jazz rock epic dark and dense and totally immersive you may need some scrumpy or some shrooms to help make sense of it all by the time it comes to a mellow end.

Cadan is a whispered tale of ambience for under a minute before Arolethes A'n Lydn the first Cornish language tune starts as somewhere close to celtic mysticism clashing with Echo and the Bunnymen trying to be Runrig it's well odd and yet quite cool at the same time.

Hope Comes With Love sounds like it's deep in the woods space rock epic mess of confusion that somehow just about coalesces this is dense layered and complicated so much going on and obviously so much time spent creating this all-encompassing sound.

Delivered Hope starts all quiet and with vocals that sound like they were recorded in the chapel they have that feel to them as a couple of minutes in and it explodes into the jazz rock psych opera it needs to be this is one of those albums that probably sounds best on high end headphones in the middle of the night sitting looking at the stars and letting the music take you on a flight.

Song Of The Lady is one of the more conventionally structured songs although the instrumentation and delivery is anything but conventional but it's a jaunty little tale like The Cravats gone prog folk somehow it's really cool.

I almost wanted Sorrow Goes to continue where my rosemary grows but this is too dank and dense and foreboding mini musical in the woods style horror soundtrack to all sorts of sorrowful nastiness for that to happen by the time the vocals come in after 3 minutes the film is starting to reach some sort of messy denouement that comes just as the water starts to flow.

Darralow is weird Cornish psych folk rock with almost shoegaze guitars oddly effective. Tonight begins with a picked acoustic guitar and the first straight vocals un- laden with effects as the violins come in and this gentle folk song feels like a come-down to keep everything in balance until it goes rather odd towards the end.

Step Backwards is full on heavily layered dense as an impenetrable forest Incredible String band gone heavily electric with almost love poem style lyrics The first half finishes with The Fisherman that sounds like it should be sung on the quayside as the boats return with the daily catch, but well musically the picked guitars would work but the rest might be more difficult but a cool reel gone jazz psych rock edge to it.

The second cd opens with the space rock sounds of The Dream oscillating across the speakers and plunging us further on our journey until what sounds like a folk jig emerges in the midst of the space and whispering walls style vocals crawl past the sax wailing away as we sip on our mead and light our pipes and go deep into both space and the depths of the countryside.

The Sun Came Up Again as that sitting on the top of a mountain or a cliff chanting and communing with nature and those around you kind of feel to it as they truly wake up to the cascading guitars and sax blowing through like the gustiest windiest dawn as you all grab trees both to hug them and to anchor yourself too.

The Light is now blinding in our eyes as the storm is over and the sun is bright for a brief two minutes. Then we are Alone Again plunging deep into the crevices below avoiding the trolls and propelled along our way with all these sounds vibrating out of the stones and rocks as they lament being single and alone again while sounding like Dungen by the end of it you can hear the birdsong in the depths of the forest as a piano twinkles away.

Yes they really are Worlds Apart in a post-split blitz of anomie dense jazz squalling sparks the pleading to gain her safe return through an incantation and a spirit sent on the wind. Morwenna And The Lamb are dancing in a filed or meadow somewhere as you exit the forest into the wide open and the guitars expand and pulsate around you and the drums propulsive energy carry you across the meadow as the saxes explode like a mass orgasmic detonation.

Dygoweth is the needed comedown echoey vocals dart in and out as they never come down before you die brings the sax into revive our spirits with a musical tonic.

Tales is bucolic folk gone wrong and driving psych elements to fry your already fried mind as your comedown feels like waves are rippling beside you. Then the album wends it's way to its final destination on This Is How it's Always been flute driven funky folk meandering through your mind as the guitar gently strums and the gulls fly overhead and time seems to bend to this mystical musical journey Hantehir have taken us on it's well worth strapping in and taking a trip with them while the Saving Of Caden takes place.
Find out more from www.easyaction.co.uk https://hanterhir.com https://www.facebook.com/hanterhir/
  author: simonovitch

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