Hammock – Universalis – Album Review by Killian Laher

After the choral explorations of last year’s Mysterium, Hammock return with a fully instrumental album.  This one is unremiittingly lovely.  Early on in the album, second track Scattering Light is like Sigur Ros and the gentler moments of Mogwai draped in silk.  The first peak is Cliffside, a glacial yet gorgeous slow burn, with unhurried strings gliding by every so often.  They exhibit their darker, brooding side on Always Before Your Eyes, a track not too far removed from Loscil.

Elsewhere there’s a prominence of guitars which hasn’t been seen for a few albums. We Are More Than We Are sounds like The Cure in their imperious mid period, pre-Disintegration, while Thirst evokes the mid-nineties blissful misery of the Red House Painters.

It’s too easy to lapse into cliché when describing this kind of music.  Best to let the music do the talking.  In the crowded field of ambient/instrumental music, this deserves to be right at the front.

Track List –
1. Mouth to Dust… Waiting
2. Scattering Light
3, Universalis
4. Cliffside
5. Always Before Your Eyes
6. We Are More Than We Are
7. Tether of Yearning
8. Clothed With Sky
9. Thirst
10. We Watched You Disappear
11. Tremendum

Scattering Light