Hookworms

2662 fans
Forget everything you know about Hookworms. Ok, maybe not everything; the urgency and viscera both live and on record that led the Yorkshire-based five-piece to prominence across two blistering full-length LPs - 2013’s Pearl Mystic and 2014 follow-up The Hum - remains. However, as they return with their much-anticipated third record Microshift, the title of the record connotates more than just the intended nod to the audio plug-in their vocalist MJ regularly uses; it could also be an understatement of a three-year narrative that’s brought about changing circumstances, influences and subsequent evolution.

Microshift is a record that largely pulls back the dense fug of guitars and Modern Lovers-esque blasts of organ that have become Hookworms’ hallmark, replaced instead by a plethora of electronics and synthesizers. New variants on their use of motorik sees drummer JN working around drum machines on many of the tracks, while an increased focus on melody is most notable in MJ’s vocal delivery, now shorn of the Space Echo that drenched it previously. “After eight years of being a band we couldn’t just make another psych rock record” says the group’s MB. This appetite for change existed even as The Hum was gaining plaudits and the band were treading the boards at various Psych Fests Europe-wide. It wasn’t sharing stages with copious guitar bands that Hookworms took away as highlights from their 2015 run, the band instead pointing to lesser-shouted about slots, including an improvised live set with Spaceman 3 producer and Moog enthusiast Richard Formby on a Recon Festival bill also featuring US techno producers Karen Gwyer and Container.

“It was the first time we’d properly incorporated synthesizers, samples and drum machines into our live music beyond the odd drone, and hearing how punchy those instruments were through a proper PA alongside live drums was an eye-opener,” says MB of these performances, and there’s no doubt about their lasting impact. Some early recording sessions with Formby for an intended EP became the beginnings of Opener, a majestic eight minute epic that exhales euphorically from a dizzying build. Meanwhile there’s a nod to LCD Soundsystem on the bouncing disco of Negative Space and the juddering electronic repetitions of Ullswater.
Formby isn’t the only collaborator here either: Christopher Duffin, MB’s partner in his James Holden- endorsed synth project Xam Duo pops up on saxophone duties, most notably on the searing Boxing Day. It’s arguably the most abrasive track of the nine. Meanwhile Alice Merida Richards from previous tour mates Virginia Wing beams in from the ether on Each Times We Pass, offering a delicate counterpoint to MJ’s own vocal in one of the album’s highlights. “It was a privilege to play with people like that on this record,” comments guitarist EO, “they allowed us, on some of the songs, to go to places we wouldn't otherwise have gone.”

There’s far more to Microshift than just rock band going electronic however; indeed, the fact it’s here at all is a relief after a series of setbacks for the band. Most publicly, the minutiae of the US visa system caused the expensive, last minute cancellation of an American tour, while on Boxing Day 2015 (referred to in the song of the same name) the River Aire floods in Leeds devastated MJ’s Suburban Home Studio - not just the rehearsal and recording space of the band, but home to the producer’s livelihood itself. The band are quick to point out that the incredible response to a GoFundMe campaign and the subsequent help of volunteers over several months to rebuild the studio from nothing is a huge part of the band’s continued existence. Striving through this as well as relationship breakups, family illness and the death of the band’s close friend and live sound engineer, it is perhaps no surprise that the record is one of both defiance and darkness.

“All our records are to an extent about mental health,” comments MJ. “Largely this is an album about loss but also about maturing, accepting your flaws and the transience of intimacy.” Lyrically, MJ goes into body image and anxiety in public spaces on Shortcomings; Opener is about the unwillingness of men to open up to one another, while Negative Space is about the trauma of grief. Boxing Day takes the floods as a metaphor for relationships, while Static Resistance is the internal battle and dissonance between self-love and wanting to escape your body by taking it somewhere else. “The words have always been the last thing I finished, whereas this time many of them were written sooner” he adds. “I’ve been reading a lot of poetry by Emily Berry, Frank O’Hara and Ocean Vuong.”

MJ’s delivery is the boldest it’s ever been. Take something like The Soft Season: a slow ballad, it sees his vocal carry the song in a way he’s never done before, exploring a range hitherto hidden behind effects. By exploring his own pop sensibilities throughout, he creates one of the record’s key dynamics in causing a fission with MB’s excavations into improvised electronic music. “I think there has always been a bit of a push and pull between the two of us” comments MB, “it is maybe just more pronounced here than ever before. We complement each other’s positives, and make up for each other’s negatives. I think it’d be fair to say that without MJ my Hookworms ideas would likely be boring or unlistenable, and without me his songs might not be weird or interesting enough.”
Together, alongside guitarists JW and EO and drummer JN, they’ve pulled off a triumph against adversity, a comeback with what they may see as a Microshift, but is in fact a massive step forward.

Top tracks

03
Ullswater
Hookworms
Microshift
07:08
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
05
Opener
Hookworms
Microshift
08:36
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
02
On Leaving
Hookworms
The Hum
06:02
Composers: Hookworms
02
Static Resistance
Hookworms
Microshift
03:48
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
01
Negative Space
Hookworms
Microshift
06:56
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson

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  • Discography
Albums
Domino Recording Co Ltd
02-02-2018
Microshift
01
Negative Space
Hookworms
Microshift
06:56
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
02
Static Resistance
Hookworms
Microshift
03:48
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
03
Ullswater
Hookworms
Microshift
07:08
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
04
The Soft Season
Hookworms
Microshift
04:00
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
05
Opener
Hookworms
Microshift
08:36
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
06
Each Time We Pass
Hookworms
Microshift
05:15
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson - Alice Merida Richards
07
Boxing Day
Hookworms
Microshift
02:18
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
Access the complete album info (9 songs)
Domino Recording Co Ltd
29-10-2015
Live Vol III
01
The Impasse (Live at Islington Mill, Salford)
Hookworms
Live Vol III
04:06
Composers: Hookworms
02
On Leaving (Live at Islington Mill, Salford)
Hookworms
Live Vol III
06:14
Composers: Hookworms
03
Radio Tokyo (Live at Islington Mill, Salford)
Hookworms
Live Vol III
04:12
Composers: Hookworms
04
The Correspondent (Live at Islington Mill, Salford)
Hookworms
Live Vol III
06:50
Composers: Hookworms
05
Teen Dreams (Live at Islington Mill, Salford)
Hookworms
Live Vol III
08:36
Composers: Hookworms
06
Beginners (Live at Islington Mill, Salford)
Hookworms
Live Vol III
07:22
Composers: Hookworms
07
I’m Not a Young Man Anymore (Live at Islington Mill, Salford)
Hookworms
Live Vol III
05:57
Composers: Sterling Morrison - Maureen Tucker - Lou Reed - John Cale
Access the complete album info (9 songs)
Domino Recording Co Ltd
10-11-2014
The Hum
01
The Impasse
Hookworms
The Hum
02:42
Composers: Hookworms
02
On Leaving
Hookworms
The Hum
06:02
Composers: Hookworms
03
iv
Hookworms
The Hum
02:58
Composers: Hookworms
04
Radio Tokyo
Hookworms
The Hum
04:01
Composers: Hookworms
05
Beginners
Hookworms
The Hum
06:36
Composers: Hookworms
06
v
Hookworms
The Hum
00:39
Composers: Hookworms
07
Off Screen
Hookworms
The Hum
07:37
Composers: Hookworms
Access the complete album info (9 songs)
Domino Recording Co Ltd
04-03-2013
Pearl Mystic
01
Away / Towards
Hookworms
Pearl Mystic
08:49
Composers: Hookworms
02
Form and Function
Hookworms
Pearl Mystic
05:58
Composers: Hookworms
03
i
Hookworms
Pearl Mystic
02:44
Composers: Hookworms
04
In Our Time
Hookworms
Pearl Mystic
04:50
Composers: Hookworms
05
Since We Had Changed
Hookworms
Pearl Mystic
07:32
Composers: Hookworms
06
Preservation
Hookworms
Pearl Mystic
05:04
Composers: Hookworms
07
ii
Hookworms
Pearl Mystic
01:30
Composers: Hookworms
Access the complete album info (9 songs)
EPs
Gringo Records
16-07-2018
Hookworms (Expanded Edition)
01
Medicine Cabinet
Hookworms
Hookworms (Expanded Edition)
06:23
02
Teen Dreams
Hookworms
Hookworms (Expanded Edition)
06:21
03
I Have Some Business Out West
Hookworms
Hookworms (Expanded Edition)
05:30
04
Resolution
Hookworms
Hookworms (Expanded Edition)
08:42
05
Form And Function
Hookworms
Hookworms (Expanded Edition)
05:50
06
Deu
Hookworms
Hookworms (Expanded Edition)
02:11
07
The Correspondent
Hookworms
Hookworms (Expanded Edition)
05:59
Singles
Domino Recording Co Ltd
10-10-2018
Ullswater (Luke Abbott Remix)
01
Ullswater (Luke Abbott Remix)
Hookworms
Ullswater (Luke Abbott Remix)
06:07
Writer: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson / Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
Domino Recording Co Ltd
01-11-2017
Negative Space
01
Negative Space
Hookworms
Negative Space
06:56
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
02
Negative Space (Edit)
Hookworms
Negative Space
04:56
Composers: Matthew Benn - Matthew Johnson - Jonathan Nash - Samuel Shipstone - Jonathan Wilkinson
Featured in
Sonic Cathedral
18-02-2013
Psych for Sore Eyes
01
The Correspondent
Hookworms
Psych for Sore Eyes
06:01
Writer: Matthew Johnson / Composers: Hookworms
02
Life Thus Far-Out
Ttotals
Psych for Sore Eyes
02:50
Writer: Brian Miles / Composers: Ttotals
03
6 AM
The Vacant Lots
Psych for Sore Eyes
04:05
Writer: Brian MacFadyen / Composers: The Vacant Lots
04
Kingdom Come
White Manna
Psych for Sore Eyes
06:44
Writer: David Johnson / Composers: White Manna
05
Medicine to Cure Medicine Sickness
Lorelle Meets The Obsolete
Psych for Sore Eyes
04:02
Writer: Lorena Quintanilla - Alberto González / Composers: Lorena Quintanilla - Alberto González
06
High Low
The Band In Heaven
Psych for Sore Eyes
03:53
Writer: Ates Isildak / Composers: Ates Isildak
28-05-2012
Form and Function / Ursids
01
Form and Function
Hookworms
Form and Function / Ursids
05:52
02
Ursids
Kogumaza
Form and Function / Ursids
05:45