HANDLINGNOISE

Fantastic dark psychedelic obscurity, as if a shining appearance (like the sleeve) would come ahead of us.

Cannot avoid their initial sound kicks in the first track "El Topo". Seriously percussive explosive quakes make us palpitate quickly, followed by dramatic dry chorus that ring our bells. Melancholic guitar whispering is impressive too, and they (nobody knows how many players they have though) launch not only moody / desert space rock but also enthusiastic psychedelic eruption. Sometimes darkly metallic, sometimes simply tragic, and sometimes theatrically deep ... they have more kaleidoscopic soundscape than other ones. Suppose Finnish human nature, blessed with clean air and cool water, would give them such a gracious fantasy. The same matter can be felt in the following stuff "Hannibal", flooded with ethnic mysterious atmosphere created by their scarlet voices and muddy instrumental evolution. Not artificial but natural movement I've felt. Obviously full of confidence they should be under the dark sky, especially in the last dead ambient scene.

"God Bless The Poor Bankers" or "Son Of Ugly Box" reminds me something like attachment for symphonic Floyd in Roger Era and Heavy Water Experiments. Difficult to digest, like an akinetic deep-sea fish beneath the black sea, but I'm always wondering the reason to soak up such a hardness drenched in black water. What an amazing comfort for me ... even as to the last scattering noise fuzz in "Son Of ..." or a lingering sound whisper at the end of "God Bless ...". Oh yes, "Funny Paper Fax Machine" is another non-funny sound persistency, namely my pleasure, that I've met anywhere evidently but I cannot remember anymore. The last "Smackblossoms" is one of the most favourite stuffs for me, like the first one. Exactly like themselves, obscure and magical sound / noise / voice announcements attacking us spread itself out as a critical music dimensional trip. Where will we go, with the deepy trippy dizziness? A dying sound fire can be fascinating too. A Finnish gem really.

A thank you goes to the band for kindly sending me a promo copy. Even though I'm not as enthusiastic about this album as Damo, I'm glad of the opportunity to inform you of HANDLINGNOISE. The band members choose to stay anonymous. This debut album, the only release this far, consists of six tracks, most of them around 8-9 minutes in length.

'El Topo' featuring a powerful, heavy percussion sets the mood very effectively and drags the listener into a psychedelic maelstrom, an unnamed no-man's land where the line between being awake and asleep gets blurred. The final percussion-free minute of it can be best described as Dark Ambient.

Noise, metallic and experimental are other tags used, and I add Post-Rock to the list. Not the most familiar subgenre to me, I pick up bands such as MAGYAR POSSE (also from Finland), BATTLESTATIONS, SIGUR RÓS and GY!BE in hope to give some clue of the rather abstract, edgy and alienated wall-of-sound. Sure this music averagely gets much heavier and more psychedelic than the mentioned, but there's something familiar from that subgenre. I think the handling of the human voice is also pointing towards Post-Rock. They are like distant wailings, one can't really hear the words properly, which must be deliberate.

Some of the track titles are a bit amusing ('Son of Ugly Box', 'Funny Paper Faxmachine', 'God Bless the Poor Bankers'), which brings some perplexing contrast to the dark and sinister mood. On the other hand all the titles are close to the abstract meaninglessness, not willing to steer the listener's imagery very much into any specific direction. The band could have chosen not to name the tracks either, but it's always more convenient to have the titles. Recommended to those who fancy Post-Rock, hard-edged experimental instrumental rock and Dark Ambient all packed tightly together.

What an amazing and astonishing discover!!! Got to recognize that I started listen this album full of previous friends comments that describes he sound of Handlingnoise like a new wave of psych... Well, the album is not that awsome but it has a singular style which makes you listen every song with many attention...

These boys take his time to build heavy atmospheres directed to epic moments created by guitars and keyboards supported by a strong base of drums. They don't leave moments for the rest of the ear while they build sound walls that chain different melodies in a musical construction that exploits in epic psych finales at the end of every song.

It is not a great album but it fulfills the function to spend and entertain. 3 and a half for me...