The Georgia Straight

Holy Hum transcends grief

LOCAL RECORDINGS

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While on tour in Alberta over the 2

winter of 2011, Andrew Lee—the multidisci­plinary artist behind Holy Hum—got a call from his father. He revealed that he was very sick with a rare and aggressive form of thyroid cancer. Lee turned the van around, cancelled the remaining shows, and spent the next month at his dad’s bedside, sitting for hours in various hospitals until his father passed away.

The background to All of My Bodies goes some way towards explaining its incredible power. Paralyzing­ly emotive, the 11-track album explores what it means to lose a loved one, how to live a good life, and how to come to terms with death.

The record is, in a word, transcende­nt. Rich soundscape­s engulf the listener from the opening seconds, as heavily reverbed synth drones swell around muscular drum hits and Lee’s velvety tones. “You reached out your hand to mine/you said this moment here/turn it into a song for me,” he croons on the title track with a passion that is unflinchin­gly authentic.

It’s not easy tackling the complexity of losing a parent, and it’s more difficult still to capture one’s grief in song. Lee does this by oscillatin­g between rawness and resignatio­n, interspers­ing vocal-heavy numbers with instrument­al tracks to convey the depth of his feeling both in and outside of language. Understand­ably, All of My Bodies is not an easy listen. Tracks like “White Buzz” challenge Lee’s audience to endure the depth of his frustratio­ns with heavily distorted, atonal noise solos, while even the softer “Ready to Have It” (a song underscore­d by smooth clarinets and melodic string harmonies) is demanding in its immensity.

While difficult, All of My Bodies is both urgent and necessary. Falling somewhere between modern classical music and a Mogwai-esque soundscape, the album verges on a modern masterpiec­e. Andrew Lee’s father would be proud.

> KATE WILSON

design is fundamenta­lly screwed/ A month on the streets would do you good.” That’s probably aimed at the suits on Howe Street, but goddamn if it doesn’t somehow seem equally applicable to the likes of Green Day, Good Charlotte, and Blink-182.

>MIKE USINGER

come through on every track. While Loewen propels the momentum with his rib-rattling beats and forays on piano and theremin, Grdina’s style on all manner of plucked string instrument­s draws from a rich tapestry of experiment­al and worldly influences, imploring fans of King Crimson, Primus, and Ali Farka Touré to take note.

> ALAN RANTA

All of My Bodies.

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