It is fair to say that High Tiny Hairs do not waste too much time thinking about names for their releases, their introduction being called EP and a debut album going by the name of LP, their names the distinction between two self-titled proposals. Where they do centre their attention is on a sound which tantalises and captivates. Creating a compelling mix of garage and psych rock as sultry as it is infectious, the band captured ears and imagination with their first EP, a tempting which has blossomed into something even more beguiling in its full-length successor.
The beginnings of High Tiny Hairs came in the spring of 2014, the band starting out as a solo project for Minneapolis songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Ben Bachman. He recorded and produced the High Tiny Hairs EP soon after before joining US garage rock band Fuck Knights on their European tour prior to its release. It was on the Spanish leg of that adventure where he met Spanish troubadour Cristina Mirica and found a union in music and loves. They kept in touch after his return to America, an emotional bond growing which Bachman put down to the cure to his writers block. Towards the end of that year, he returned to Spain and Mirica, the pair also creatively uniting for what stands before us, the band’s magnetic first album.
Mixed by Ross Nueske, the album opens up with Bcna, guitars quickly wrapping engagingly around ears as the warm serenade of keys flirt with the senses. Seriously catchy from its first breath, the song only grows in tempting as Mirica’s warm tones joins the swagger of bass and crisp beats. There is a surf rock scenting to the track alongside its sixties flavoured garage pop, a mix which has hips and appetite dancing and all warmed up for the just as lively and enjoyable stroll of Upside Down. Hooks and melodies entangle as rhythms bound with an irresistible swagger, Bachman’s vocals and keys sauntering along the infection loaded encounter.
As Night Walking engages ears next it is clear that the punk essences of that first EP have been more or less replaced with a richer wash of variety, the song’s warm and seductive swing embracing psych blues and broader rock elements. There is no escaping getting hooked up in its masterful sway or the seventies glam pop flavoured rock ‘n’ roll of the following Rattlin. With more than a passing nod to bands like Sweet, the song romps along with ear enslaving virulence as Bachman’s guitar weaves a web of melodic enterprise around beguiling vocals.
Rolling Smoke dips back into the seeds of sixties garage rock next while Stained smoulders with psych rock imagination from the same era straight after; both tracks as diverse and unique as they are mutually captivating and creatively stylish. They are qualities which again shape the hazy canvas of My Mind, a track with a whiff of bands like The 13th Floor Elevators and The Electric Prunes to its dark pop romancing.
The album is completed by firstly On a Plane, a humid summer of psych and garage rock with underlying tempestuousness, and finally Sunset. The closer is a riveting controlled stomp of punchy beats, brooding bass, and exotic melodies aligned to just as hazy vocals and steamy keys. It is a delicious end to an album which is just as flavoursome and more as a whole.
With a line-up now expanded by the addition of Coda’s Guillem Gabarró and Raül Romero of Flashback Five, High Tiny Hairs is looking at a rather exciting year on the back of one rather fine release.
The High Tiny Hairs LP is out now @ http://hightinyhairs.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/HighTinyHairs http://hightinyhairs.wixsite.com/hightinyhairs
Pete RingMaster 25/02/2017
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
There is a touch of Muse about the opener, but just a passing whiff before a Pixies-esque spicing emerges in the following Magic. Again it is a scent in an offering uniquely Maths and the Moon; a track which merges a charming sonic irritability with tenacious beats and the spiny lure of the bass. As with the first, the song is inescapably contagious, inciting body and ears with equal prowess and success whilst its fuzzy air and emotive drama seals the imagination’s involvement. Across its length, it blossoms an increasingly blistered surface to its melodies and voice, flirting with a Jesus and Mary Chain meets scorched shoegaze like glazing, while superbly continuing the impressive start to the album with a success quickly backed up by Amongst Trees and its shadow grasped balladry. It is a subdued and mesmeric persuasion where poetically suggestive guitar and voice hug ears as drums and bass build a pulsating frame around them. A thicker stroll of psych rock does emerge within the track, another enticement as catchy as it is soothing in the album, which in turn breeds a rolling rhythmic incitement which provides the hook for celestial harmonies and sultry melodies to hang around.
Released through Shropshire based label Hartfield Records, Lost and Found is a swift arousal of ears and imagination. From a gentle guitar caress it blossoms into a lively stroll shaped by spicy melodies, energetic rhythms, and eager vocals. There is no escaping an Arctic Monkeys meets The Libertines air to the track, a rich flavour but one woven into something as freshly Slumdogs as anything familiar. As the song continues to swing along taking appetite and hips with it, guitars cast a blend of emotive and flirtatious melodies around the grumble of the bass and a lure of tenacious beats, it all under the leadership of the excellent vocals.
A bolder, antagonistic post punk undercurrent runs through the next up Reflection Lies, the bass leading those magnetic textures within another imagination sparking smog of sonic and melodic dissonance cast by guitar and synth, while Black Hole swings and rumbles with celestial and almost carnivorous washes of sound and emotion, each evolving and expanding in the ears with every passing minute. Both tracks majorly beguile and intimidate in varying ways and each ignites the senses, but the second of the two with its punk growl and techno flirtation within ravenous atmospheric explorations is especially irresistible.
Tiny Tambourines follows up the thrilling start with a gentler melodic kiss on ears, though tantalising electronic incitement and an off-kilter rhythmic shuffle are also there courting the warmer hues of sound and Taylor’s ever evocative voice. The track is a fuzzy romancing of ears and imagination, again with a great tempestuousness which means unpredictability lurks at every twist and turn before the brilliant warped bossanova of Frank Account takes over. From the first strains of guitar, ears sense a festival is waiting to pounce, a few seconds more brings confirmation as strolling beats and swinging harmonies surround Taylor and the flirtatiously jazzy grooves and devilish hooks of Firth. Like a slightly deranged hybrid of The BeauBowBelles and Molotov Jukebox, the song bewitches and enslaves; taking body and imagination on a lively and provocative adventure.
