Hundred in the Hands - The Hundred in the Hands

  by Paul Waller

published: 12 / 8 / 2010

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Review

The birth of this group was a glorious one indeed. From the ashes of the brilliant New York based indie scuzz rockers the Boggs main man Jason Friedman and back up vocalist Eleanore Everdell formed the disco pop infused the Hundred In The Hands. First single 'Dressed in Dresden' was a sharp and sassy electro slice of hipster cool that found them being picked up by Warp records. The group followed this with the mellower EP 'This Desert'. This was a release slower in tempo but was quite (and quietly) classical in scope. They laid a dreamy landscape down over the top of the electronic beats that was utterly compelling. It’s such a shame that with this, their self titled debut album that the band have failed to build on that momentum and early promise. There are still moments of grandeur. 'The Day is Made' has the feel of a daydream pressed down onto to vinyl so whenever the listener wants to drift off to another place they can savour that moment time and time again and 'Dressed in Dresden' is here sounding just as fresh as it ever did. Also, the album is book ended by two fantastic slices of modern pop. Opener 'Young Aren’t Young' is as laid back and French sounding as it could possibly be without speaking another language and smoking 20 cigarettes an hour, and the closing track 'The Beach' is by far the best moment here. Gone are the speedy beats and in there place is a slow and basic synthetic drum pattern that allows Eleanor’s voice to blossom into another thing entirely. A thing that should have been utilised a lot more throughout the duo’s debut. The problem is a lot of the material here is completely anonymous; 'Gold Blood' whist containing a catchy chorus and some sweet guitar play from Jason doesn’t give us anything the likes of Goldfrapp wasn‘t giving us ten years ago. 'Lovesick (Once Again)' and 'Commotion' suffer from the same dilemma, there are some great parts but not enough to sustain repeated plays. There are some stunning dance tracks here, but as with the majority of floor fillers they are always of the moment and not for the long hall, I don’t want to tear this apart too much because it’s far from a bad record. I just wish there was more inventiveness going on. With their last EP and tracks such as 'The Beach' they have already proven they can do it. I just wish they’d done it more.

Track Listing:-

1 Young Aren’t Young
2 Lovesick (Once Again)
3 Killing It
4 Pigeons
5 Commotion
6 This Day Is Made
7 Dead Ending
8 Gold Blood
9 Dressed In Dresden
10 Last City
11 The Beach

Label Links:-

http://warp.net/
https://www.facebook.com/warprecords
https://twitter.com/warprecords
https://www.youtube.com/user/warprecor

Have a Listen:-