#shaking hand

[pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff]

[grrlmusic]

Shaking Hand - Shaking Hand

[coporolight]

Political Animals, 2012/ The Last Full Measure, 2020

[73ghosts]

[inwemi]

[swarmborn]

Constant mantras, all my questions answered Certain chances, some strange feeling answered

[zytes]

[dustedmagazine]

Shaking Hand — Shaking Hand (Melodic)

Manchester trio Shaking Hand borrowed their name from Calgary noise rockers Women, but if you’re expecting fuzzed out, sixties-inspired vibes, think again. Sonically, these guys align more with the likes of Slint, Fugazi, and Pinback, albeit with a soft, copacetic demeaner and melodic outlook. Their songs are languid, and the band stretch them out, allowing six, seven, and even eight-minute-long workouts to fly by effortlessly. The taut yet meaty rhythm section of drummer Freddie Hunter and bassist Ellis Hodgkiss grounds the music but lets the tunes adjust direction at will, shifting course as the mood fits. A prismatic beauty emerges as ringing, labyrinthine melodies from George Hunter’s guitar delight the ears with a subtle sense of intrigue that balances their gracefulness. Shaking Hand demonstrate a cleverness with the reins, balancing looseness and restraint. This is typically found in long-tenured outfits; it’s hard to believe this is their first record.

The melody-forward nature of George Hunter’s guitar is matched by his soft vocal delivery, and as “Sun Dance” frolics into focus, the spindly lines unfurl dextrously around his lyrics. It’s slightly intoxicating, even with barely any distortion applied. Showing restraint, Hunter waits until the natural energy boils over to apply fuzzy, chunky chords. “Mantra” mines the same vein but gets rather feisty at the mid-point with a dose of Sonic Youth churn that swirls over the odd-metered rhythm. Hunter turns down the temperature with a minimalism-inspired ostinato over which a lazy acoustic strum and rolling toms usher in the black of night.

Shaking Hand understand dynamics and how to express urgency with a clever shift in tempo. Hodgekiss and Freddie Hunter, an extremely ample rhythm section, excel at adjusting the weight of a song while maintaining complete control over the cadence. Longer songs like “Up the Ante(lope)” and “Cable Ties” become intertwined vignettes that fold back onto themselves in complex structures that beguile. The seemingly benign “Italics” morphs from a pretty jaunt into a joyful romp and back again. No matter which direction the music flows, it’s always intimate and engaging.

The symbiosis between George Hunter’s elegant guitar work and the evolving rhythms of Hodgekiss and Freddie Hunter makes Shaking Hand a unique force in modern indie rock. Balancing the sweeping tension-release mechanisms of post-rock with the laid-back vibe of Pinback or the softer side of Yo La Tengo, these upstarts are certainly a precocious lot. Let’s hope they get even more graceful with age.

Bryon Hayes