Recollected (6cd)
Domino (2012)
Deluxe 6 CD Box Set, limited to an individually numbered edition of 500 copies for the world including 4 albums, singles, rarities and a full disc of the previously unreleased.
Epic, unbeleivably good compendium of Hood's work for Domino - containing some of the most beloved music for us here over the last 15 years. The set includes the four albums - 'Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys', 'The Cycle Of Days And Seasons', 'Cold House' and 'Outside Closer' - plus a compilation of the band's Domino EPs, as well as 'The Hood Tapes' a 24 song bonus CD of rare, previously unreleased recordings...
The Leeds, England-based Hood, now some years into
a relaxed hiatus following 2005's Outside Closer
are one of many bands that should have been
deservedly famous. Then again, one gets a feeling
in listening to their music that such a
circumstance would have been contrary to everything
about their art. Following in the vein of such
personal musical heroes as Talk Talk, Bark
Psychosis, and Disco Inferno, brothers Chris and
Richard Adams, plus a continually rotating group of
supporting players, went from a pleasant if
sometimes derivative start-- in their case
including numerous short, sometimes fragmentary
lo-fi tape experiments and rushed songs that were
very early-1990s indie-- to a different place, a
blend of something modern and timeless, suffused
with an apparent serenity that in reality was never
entirely at ease with the rest of the universe
A fairly big claim, perhaps, but as the six-disc
box set Recollected makes clear, the end results
can be described almost in no other way. It's not a
full career overview-- that would have meant a
literal doubling in the size of the set, counting
all their other archival efforts and earliest
albums, including four CDs' worth of singles and
compilation appearances alone-- but a close
focusing on their work for the Domino label: four
albums, a one-disc collection of singles and EPs
and an expanded reissue of their post-Outside
Closer tour CD, The Hood Tapes, plus liner notes
photographs, and further details
Due to longer song lengths and the production and
touring membership of Third Eye Foundation's Matt
Elliott, Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys, their full
length Domino debut from 1998, was seen at the time
as a contextual response to acts such as Mogwai as
well as a more formal allegiance to a drone-rock
scene at the other end of the country in Bristol
But it now sounds like its own genteel creation
ominous but not empty, referencing nature and time
while hints of the modern seep in through the
arrangements-- consider the almost glitch-like feel
of "The Light Reveals the Place", elements suddenly
stopping and starting even while the overall flow
continues. The dry but wounded speak-singing of the
Adams siblings often felt more isolated as a
result, distant cries from the titular locations
1999's The Cycle of Days and Seasons felt like a
slight return given the shorter songs, including
three brief instrumentals, but the mood of cryptic
contemplation remained central, skeletal
arrangements with lots of space in the mix filled
by equally cryptic noises and textures. Voices echo
and loop, a slightly fuzzy recording of church
bells recurs at points during the album, and the
crackle and buried beats of "In Iron Light"
implicitly suggest what else was happening in the
sonic universe. That one particularly delicate
focused number, following in the vein of earlier
self-referential titles, is called "Hood Is
Finished" acts as both in-joke and summary: The
band's approach had become so beautifully refined
that it almost seemed as if anything further could
be gilding the lily
This made the shift evident on 2001's Cold House
all the more appealing. From the opening full-on
glitch loop of one of three cloudDEAD
collaborations, "They Removed All Trace That
Anything Had Ever Happened Here", set against a
still understated but more cleanly energetic
performance from the group, there's a clear sense
of having turned a corner. The feeling of real
dislocation as aesthetic move was now fully clear
a more frenetic, in-the-moment atmosphere
complementing and sometimes disrupting but never
overwhelming the calm they'd already established. A
song like "I Can't Find My Brittle Youth" is almost
them in anthemic Wedding Present territory but in
"You Show No Emotion At All" they had a perfect
single showcasing their latest approach-- crisply
propulsive, poised, and still reticent, guitars and
keyboards as pinpoint touches and horn arrangements
as a further startling glaze around a poised vocal
performance about concern and distance
If Outside Closer turns out to be the final album
Hood release, then it found them building on Cold
House's new balance extremely well-- if "The
Negatives..." was, again, at heart, a softly sung
contemplation, its arrangement was practically a
soul stomper in context, with shimmering samples
and melodies swirling throughout. "Winter 72" and
"Closure", in turn, worked with techniques clearly
inspired by dub while the stellar "The Lost You", a
kaleidoscopic collage of beats and shifting
arrangements, found Hood just as indebted to
Timbaland as to Disco Inferno's Ian Crause or Talk
Talk's Mark Hollis. Earlier glitch fascinations
continued elsewhere on songs like "Any Hopeful
Thoughts Arrive" with further depth and detail
arrangements building steadily into dramatic
conclusions
The EPs collection mostly covers the latter half of
the period, starting with 2001's "Home Is Where it
Hurts", capturing the group in a transitional space
and continuing through the B-sides for "The Lost
You" and "The Negatives...", including fine songs
such as "The World Touches Too Hard", "Over the
Land, Over the Sea", and "Across the Lonely Writing
Side". A key number is at the start, however
"Useless", a 1997 vinyl A-side that many fans
consider the band's best, capturing their Disco
Inferno fascination for the unexpectedly anthemic
with a mix of rough guitar, very Crause-like
vocals, and a low-key woodwind melody. The bulk of
The Hood Tapes covers rough and ready sessions
following Outside Closer, less detailed but as
always exploring various acoustic/electronic
combinations, with further rarities including the
lovely tour-only single "Winter Will Set You Back"
a rare dip into full acoustic/string waters, and
the split-single effort "You Shins Break My Heart"
an engaging interpolation of Talk Talk's "New
Grass"'s core arrangement into their own approach
It's a bit overwhelming to take in all at once, and
each disc's strengths almost come out better in
isolation. But as a welcome and well-deserved
overview, Recollected covers the continuing
evolution of a band that, having established a
strong identity over time, then proceeded to
transform it to avoid repetition of what it'd
already achieved. Would that more performers could
be so bold, and secure enough in themselves to feel
that taking a break is no bad thing
Ned Raggett (pitchfork.com)
