Hood - The Cycle Of The Days And Seasons

Domino - LP

UK, 1999

Post-Rock / Leftfield / Alternative

Initially scrawny - much in the vein of Brighton experimental rock act Crescent - Hood’s sound quietly evolved throughout the 1990’s, to eventually become lush and generous and embraced an ethos not dissimilar to that of East London Bark Psychosis’ 1994 milestone of an album, Hex, or Talk Talk’s final LP’s. Superbly produced by Bristol-raised Matt Elliott (aka The Third Eye Foundation) The Cycle of The Days and Seasons radiantly crowns a decade of experimentations in post-rock, with sweeping tunes - completely at home on Domino records - a few years before the 00’s brought their lot of not so-good glitchy IDM gimmicks.

Hood had their moments in the early 00’s but they never reached the heights they reached with their first 2 Domino releases - the following LP's eventually lacked the sore melancholy of their 1990’s releases. Enshrouded in a mist of mumbled lyrics and sludge guitars, The Cycles Of The Days And Seasons exhales a scent that reminds of the grey and poisonous perfume of PS2 survival-horror masterpiece Silent Hill 2. There is something utterly terrifying in the emptiness Hood's songs fly over, but also extremely appealing. I'm not talking about attraction to the void, but rather the comfort of knowing there's not much lying behind the music, but a numbing emptiness. 

Brilliant and grimly majestic: an essential piece of UK post-rock. Highly recommended (VG+/VG+)