Broken Circles recently welcomed Brooklyn, NY’s Hypoluxo to their roster. The band’s debut LP, If Language, is officially out this week. The album is now available for Pre-Order on digital, tape, CD or LP. Digital pre-order on Bandcamp.
You can stream Hypoluxo’s If Language in full right now, exclusively on Gold Flake Paint. “Fronts” previously premiered on Post Trash and “Directions” previously premiered on Impose.
Hypoluxo will head out on tour in October, playing some shows with Wild Pink. The first show will be the Broken Circles label showcase, Can’t Be Fixed, on October 7th in Brooklyn at Our Wicked Lady. All dates listed below.
If there is a soundtrack to our unconsciousness, then it must be calm enough not to wake us up, even-keeled and instinctive, static enough not to distract our dreams but dynamic enough to maneuver us through it, automatic and limitless—it must wander so that we might wander with it. Certainly, this describes’s Hypoluxo’s hypnotic, nodding melodies; on If Language, their first full-length, the band creates a soundscape in which one can escape, choose to completely lose oneself, or maybe just bob with the waves.
It’s impossible, however, to sink while listening to Hypoluxo; buoyant and bright, each song on If Language possesses a modest sort of upward momentum, especially on songs like “Search and Rescue,” whose shimmering, sun-dappled guitars and hushed organs send the listener floating down some slow rolling river. Not even singer and guitarist Samuel Cogen’s deep voice or dubious lyrics drag the song down; instead, they work like mellow propellers, stirring up the song, pushing it along. Even “Hometown,” which seems antsier than the others (Cogen sings, “It’s getting cold, better layer up / Better layer up, but it’s never enough / This house is never enough”), features a drum part that pecks and pops and adds a pep to an otherwise ominous song.
That said, If Language’s airy spirit is a result of its spaciousness—the layers of guitars and keyboards, the echo and retro reverb, the sweep and swell that unburden each song. During climactic choruses in “In My Head It’s All Sand” and “Sidewalk,” all the instruments blur and blend, become a droning, cyclonic updraft of swirling chords and wiggling leads, whirring rhythms and mumbling melodies, breaths and heartbeats that bury Cogen’s baritone and build the song into a noisy sandstorm. But it’s the album’s title track that best uses noise to create space and peace; simple and sparse, blinding and beautiful, “If Language” is so clean, using only solid chords and rays of sound as a bed for Cogen’s lyrics: “I wish I could talk / like all my friends do / I wish I could talk.”
It’s this combo—the expansive, spirited, simple soundscapes—that makes Hypoluxo’s music so intoxicating, but it’s the band’s laid back execution that makes these songs so interesting. After all, If Language is comprised of songs whose melodies and mood and idle momentum construct the perfect soundtrack to our unconsciousness, but will keep us listening, attentive and alert, long after we should have slipped into sleep. – Dane Erbach
Upcoming Shows
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10/07 – Brooklyn, NY @ Our Wicked Lady – Broken Circles Label Showcase w/ Pro Teens, Slow & Steady, New Rose
10/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ HH Ranch w/ Wild Pink
10/09 – Annapolis, MD @ Metropolitan w/ Wild Pink
10/10 – Richmond, VA @ Crayola House w/ Wild Pink
10/11 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Nightlight w/ Wild Pink
10/12 – Atlanta, GA @ 529 w/ Wild Pink
10/13 – Savannah, GA @ Cake Factory w/ Wild Pink
10/14 – Tallahassee, FL @ The Wolf’s Den w/ Wild Pink
10/15 – Orlando, FL @ Spacebar w/ Wild Pink
10/16 – St. Petersburg, FL @ The Bends w/ Wild Pink
10/20 – West Palm Beach, FL @ Respectables
10/21 – Miami, FL @ Gramps
10/23 – Houston, TX @ Satellite Bar
10/24 – Galveston, TX @ Gypsy Joint
10/25 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
10/27 – Tucson, AZ @ El Cocina
10/28 – Phoenix, AZ @ House Show
10/30 – Loe Angeles, CA @ Radio KXLU
10/31 – Los Angeles, CA @ Ham & Eggs Tavern
11/01 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Smell w/ Caterwall
11/02 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Subrosa w/ Caterwall
11/04 – Oakland, CA @ TBA w/ Caterwall
11/05 – Portland, OR @ The Analog Theater
11/07 – Seattle, WA @ Victory Lounge
11/08 – Boise, ID @ Nerolux
11/09 – Denver, CO @ Juice Church
11/10 – Boulder, CO @ Radio KVCU 1190
11/11 – Chicago, IL @ The Observatory
11/12 – Detroit, MI @ TBA
11/14 – Cincinnati, OH @ TBA
11/15 – Pittsburgh, PA @ TBA
11/16 – Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
11/18 – Skidmore College, NY @ House Show
11/19 – Boston, MA @ TBA
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