HVMM (which I believe is pronounced like Hum) are a four piece blues/rock band from Worcester made up of Ebony Clay on lead Guitar, Andy Teece on Vocals/Guitar, Jack Timmis on Bass and Sam Jenkins on Drums.
‘Lacerate’ opens with a nice little baseline before the drums and everything else kicks in, it’s bloody wonderful and then we get some piercing vocals that suit the music to a tee, it’s a really good first track that’s easy to understand (which is harder to come by than I’d like) and on the right side of Jarring, it’s pure and instantly gives an impression of the band. I just played this one over and over listening to it because I just loved the actually song that blended all its elements well and grabs your attention.
‘1924’ is up next and this time the track opens up with drums, a light percussion that is joined by a fusion of electronic chords and then a voice that just makes me think of Noel Fielding for some reason, very surreal and Mighty Booshesque in its quality, I hope that’s not a bad comparison. I liked that track even more than the first, it has a lot of personality and passion to it, it’s a song that fights you and like with the previous track you aren’t going to be ignoring this one.
‘Beggars and Thieves’ starts off with guitars this time, building quickly with fast paced and staccato rhythm that is just brilliant, this track is broken up well by instrumental sections, that show off their skills even more. Out off all the tracks so far this one is the one that screams ‘confrontation’ it’s unrelenting and angry and well worth a listen.
‘Going Postal’ is a reference to just going absolutely mental and with the surprisingly paced intro that seemed tame in comparison to ‘Beggars and Thieves’ I was quite surprised but It did have its moments where it kicked things up a notch, and without any preconceptions it’s a really good track with a nice little hook. This is exactly the type of track I end up putting on my Ipod, it manages to be exciting and energetic without just being loud guitars and shouting. We do get to hear Ebony’s voice in this track that works really well with the other voices.
‘Millie’s Going to Town’ opens with jangling fusion of noises that seem designed to put you on edge before you’re flung right into the deep end with some expert sections on the guitar. This song seems to be all about built and intensity, and it does both those things really well. I think this would be perfect for background music on a game, in fact it reminds me something I might have heard in Undertale. I takes over a minute for the first voices to come in and they do go really well with the electronic/synth sections and they play off each other in the best way. This track is the longest on the album but it doesn’t disappoint, it just goes on in waves, alternating between the sections slightly until it closes quietly.
‘Circular Living’ is the last track on the EP and it opens with some light percussion backed up by some building chords that seem to loom over the listener, it’s like there’s something coming, and it shows how good the track is if it can evoke such a particular reaction. It only continue to build towards the minute mark of the track, getting more and more behind it until you think that it’s just going to keep going, and just when it’s built right to a certain level the song is broken up with a voice mail talking about ‘a circular way of life’ described in the title, and then back on building again, it’s tremendous and unexpected and works really well.
So that’s what I thought about HVMM’s debut EP ‘Talk To Me Like I’m Dead’ and if you want to check that out for yourself then head on over to Spotify.
First Published on: https://www.newhellfireclub.co.uk
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