179: Living Hour - Wheel
Winnipeg quintet Living Hour are today sharing new song 'Wheel', alongside the announcement of a brand new album, Internal Drone Infinity, which is out October 17 via their new home (and our favourite label) Keeled Scales.
The band worked on the new album alongside Melina Duterte, better known to you and I as Jay Som, who appeared as a guest on their previous LP – 2022's Someday is Today – and engineered and produced the new project, the band's fourth full-length effort.
New song 'Wheel' is a wholly invigorating introduction to the band's new chapter, cramming so much noise and heart into just two-and-a-half minutes it practically spills out from each and every side. Sam Sarty's voice just about holds the whole thing together, the sentimental anchor at the heart of it all, detailing a illusory three-day roadtrip she took from BC to Winnipeg:
"The story of 'Wheel' begins with buying a car off Facebook Marketplace in BC. Turns out the car was junk, but I had no choice but to drive it home to Winnipeg. It took 3 days. I was driving through the mountains, and the headlights were so dim, and for a stretch there was nowhere to turn off. It felt like a weird, horrific video game–navigating the road and dodging danger and trying not to die. I also felt so deeply betrayed by all the men involved in the whole thing.
"In this song, I was able to imagine an alternate reality where I’m a vengeful spectator in these men's lives. What if I had died on the road, and what if I came back and plagued them all with my powerful essence that they so easily dismissed, contorted and took advantage of in order to sell me a fucked up car?"
Ratcheting up from earthy beginnings to something altogether powerful and unkempt, it's a suitably wild-ride of a song, the whole thing just about hanging together while always seemingly on the brink of falling apart. It's wholly magnetic and a welcome, timely reminder of the band's prowess. Leap into it.
Pre-order Internal Drone Infinity on Bandcamp here
*
