aaamusic | On 13, Jul 2010

On the heels of their critically acclaimed EP, This Desert, The Hundred in the Hands will release their debut full-length this September on Warp Records. The Fly says their “pounding disco with a post-punk heart is nothing short of perfection… they’ve certainly got bracing dance music nailed”, while Time Out gave their EP “two thumbs up!”

Coinciding with this announcement, the band have moved to London for a Summer of festivals and shows, starting this weekend with Wireless festival in Hyde Park (Saturday, third stage, 4.30pm). Full list of dates below.
The Hundred in the Hands LP is an album of deceptively complex pop songs which hark back to the dance music of NYC’s storied underground. The album is a product of DIY home-recording plus a series of studio sessions in London and New York with contributions by producer friends including Jacques Renault, Richard X, Eric Broucek and Chris Zane.

Pre-order the album here: http://bit.ly/dyIquf

Listen to tracks from the album here: http://bit.ly/91kjPg

The Hundred in the Hands is Eleanore Everdell and Jason Friedman. The two live in Brooklyn and discovered their shared sensibility for early hip hop, French house and disco, ska and dub, post-punk, British invasion-mod and girl pop from the 60’s through the 80’s and decided to form a band. Their first song—the post-punk rave-up “Dressed in Dresden”—was written and recorded in a couple of days, released online, picked up and released as a 45 by a record shop in the U.K. where they were soon playing shows and coming to the attention of Warp Records. Meanwhile, the two retreated to the bunker to write and record. During that time, Friedman and Everdell focused on deciding exactly who they wanted to be. What they discovered and emerged with were 11 startling new tracks and a precise and deliberate sound.
The band’s self-titled debut album is an epic collection of adventurously crafted, perfectly manufactured and deceptively complex pop songs that embrace the duality between the electronic and the organic, between night and day.

Equal parts mutant disco, 80’s pop queen and Yé Yé girl, Eleanore’s epic vocals and lavish synths—both full and flirty, desperate and demanding—belie a naturalism that’s intensified and offset by Jason’s bass lines, programmed beats and guitars that swerve from angular, full-throttle riffs to vaporous and ephemeral shadows. Jason and Eleanore trade menacing metallic, razor sharp, turns, assembling towering melodies atop pulsing rhythms.

With a brassy carnality, the record veers from Disco dazed, avant-pop (“Young Aren’t Young”) to teenage angst, boredom and pop heartache (“Pigeons”) as Jason’s piercing guitar lines zig and zag with Eleanore’s soaring harmonies and Siouxsie-esque yelps. A late-night dance party (“Commotion”) and Post-R&B dub (“This Day Is Made”, “Lovesick (Once Again)”) spin into mind-bending mash-ups of skuzzy rock riffs and obliterated beats (“Gold Blood”) relieved finally in an austere anti-ballad to failed rebellion (“The Beach”). Elsewhere, glistening, conversational minimal wave (“Killing It”) bleeds into dreamy synth-pop (“Dead Ending”), crumbles into restrained punk (“Last City”) and bursts in the song that started it all—the incisive disco-punk dance-off, “Dressed in Dresden.” “You really can’t help but fall in love with this track”, said Q.
In the end, The Hundred in the Hands is everything all at once and nothing you’d ever expect. Jason and Eleanore bend and blend styles, sounds and eras into something that doesn’t feel confused, fake or forced. It just feels fun.

UK/Europe Summer dates

JULY

Tue       13-Jul   UK       London, Soho              White Heat, Madame JoJo’s

Thu       15-Jul   UK       London, Shoreditch      Old Blue Last, Vice Issue Launch

Fri        16-Jul   UK       Bath                             Moles

Sat       17-Jul   UK       Southwold                    Latitude Festival, Sunrise Arena

Sun      18-Jul   NL        Nijmegen                      Festival De’Affaire

Wed     21-Jul   FR        Paris                            La Plage de Glazart

Sat       24-Jul   UK       Sheffield                      Tramlines Festival

Fri        30-Jul   UK       London, Shoreditch      Cargo (w/ Dum Dum Girls)

Sat       31-Jul   UK       London, Soho              Phonica (free instore, 3pm)

Sat       31-Jul   UK       London, Brixton                       The Rest Is Noise (w/ Jimmy Edgar)

AUGUST

Thu       05-Aug UK       Brighton                       Freebutt

Fri        06-Aug UK       Eastmor Castle             Big Chill, Clash Stage

Sat       07-Aug UK       London, Camden          Proud Gallery

Sat       14-Aug FR        St Malo                                    Route Du Rock Festival, Main Stage

Fri        20-Aug UK       Wales                          Green Man, Far Out Stage

Sat       21-Aug NL                                           Lowlands, Xray Stage