Transcendentalist philosopher Henry Thoreau sought to find the ideal sense of self. In doing so, Thoreau lost himself in nature. From society to self-sufficiency to the natural world, Thoreau sought to thread together a way to live consistent with the natural realm long forgotten.
In his book “Walden,” he wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
In the same form, Australian six-piece post-hardcore band, Hands Like Houses, sought to revisit and re-invent their debut effort, culling unnecessary detours and concentrating their debut on the root tracks that truly exhibited and expressed their genuine efforts as musicians and architects of the musical structures they assembled.
Hands Like Houses released the “Snow Sessions” EP in two distinct parts, digitally on April 23 and May 1, 2012. The EP itself is part of a visual package, with coinciding music video performances, making it more of a visual EP available on Youtube, as opposed to just a re-imagining of their debut. Comprising a 4-track musical detour of both the fans and the band’s personal favorites from their debut album, “Ground Dweller.” That was also reviewed here on Killer Klassix
The release of the independently produced tracks on a pay-what-you-want platform for fans (still available here) places the band on an icy plain, stripping their most profound and enjoyable tracks of all-electric programming and performing them surrounded in a natural plain as an extension of the tracks themselves.
The visual experience of “Snow Sessions” sprawls the six-piece band in the middle of an icy knoll somewhere in their hometown of Canberra, Australia. Stripped and still bundled in their warmest attire, their music is a warm welcome to both faithful and new fans, once again exhibiting the range of their musical ability, particularly the musical range of the band’s tracks.
Jamal Sabat on keys; Matt Cooper on lead guitar; Alexander Pearson on rhythm guitar and backing vocals; Joel Tyrrell, who accompanies Pearson on rhythm guitar, and Matt Parkitny on drums. While Trenton Woodly does a good job on vocals, most of the musical effort on the EP as well as the artistic experimentation in place of the electronic elements make up for the stripped-down music. The natural setting for the music videos also adds an artistic element to the narrative the band is attempting to present together with every harmony and melody they compose.
“Act Normal” sets the tone as the initial track of the band’s EP, where metaphorically the band is found anew secluded in nature. The track’s poetic prose envelopes the listener in an audible atmosphere; lost in a new world foreign to one’s recognition, but subconsciously familiar in its form. Cooper seamlessly bridges together a playful melody both lost and familiar. The track holds some of the original chord structure from the programmed, full-band track, but it is surprisingly different and much more beautiful in the simplicity of no audible effects. Pearson and Tyrrell add audible texture to frame the whimsical aspect of the track. Woodly’s lyrics, particularly towards the end, tie the narrative together, especially during his bridge.
“Sun, make canvas of coastlines so I know where I stand/ Make canvas of coastlines,” culminates the message of the track’s nature to stray from the original melody, invert itself and come back around to the original melody to close out the track.
“Lion Skin” is an epic, both in influential matter and structure for the song. Woodley’s vocals and Cooper’s guitar are the vehicles under which the song unveils its narrative, finding a place, stuck in between dreams and sleep to make sense of the chaos in our everyday lives. The song is grandiose, drawing direct influence from the emotion evoked from fantasy novels while also capitalizing on the vibrancy of imagination and how our minds provide us with a realm to be lost in.
In the order of the EP, the track builds off the concept of finding one’s self. The melodies Woodly’s vocals and Cooper’s guitars simulate a playful nature which we often get carried away with in our imagination, but the song’s structure leaves no room for doubt in finding the minuscule possibility that our deepest whimsies and desires may very well be found in reality if we give enough of ourselves up. The track enacts these cinematic themes in its musical layering, harmonizing the chord structure of the acoustics and framing the track in Parkitny’s simple percussion.
“Animals” brilliantly sheds light on the weed-growth that is the warning of the EP’s tale. The track exhibits disconnectedness, capturing how individuals interact, crashing and colliding. The lyrical prose is only elevated once again by Woodley, pushing and nearly, melodically pleading for notice. Thematically, the song aligns most with Thoreau’s seclusion ideology. While stripping what is one of the most electronically supported and powerful tracks on the album, the track highlights how disconnected one is from natural sound, unable to find the beauty in the beauty of the original article, in this case, sound.
“The Sower” is a metaphorically heavy track, done artistically, and melodically with refinement and poise. Leaning heavily into the folktale for lyrical influence and overwhelming impact, the track is one of my favorites, particularly written from the perspective of the listener. The song is about taking responsibility, whether it is for good or for bad. After settling in the self one has found, the only thing to do is seek what one needs. This is furthered by Woodley’s comments on the track:
“(Convince me) of the devil in the details/(Of these crimes) oh, so meticulous were we/(Of passion) I’ll plead guilty/I’ll plead guilty for every taken chance/Cause I am tangled machinery/I am wreckage, distinguish the scars between/The pleasure as you dragged me down/Or the scars as they dragged you free/I am the knotted anchors below the ground/I’m the shadow that weighs you down/I’m the ghost on your lips, the phantom’s kiss/I’ll be the page of your book that’s missing/Oh, that’s missing.”
The confidence on the track evokes an inner call to the listener’s strength, which is consumingly and dangerously powerful. This closes out both the EP and the album in such a salivating notion that leaves the listener begging for more.
From a cynical point of view, the success of artistry is derived from nothingness. Something made from nothing. It is the viewer’s, or in this case, the listener’s job to piece together meaning as the final collaborator.
In the case of “Snow Sessions,” Hands Like Houses is made up for every artist who ever took advantage of the onlooker, breathing life and meaning into every note, chord, frame and melody composed for the four-track experience that is this EP. The band has proven to a precise point that music not only transcends mediums but captures the artistic forms and the abstract fabric known as life today. To Thoreau’s point, defined themselves not just as musicians, but as artists of the melodic and poetic form, building “a world of sound, and a world of sight, a world of mind” defined by the experiences captured in their art.
5/5
