Humanfly – II

This week is 20 Buck Spin week at Invisible Oranges. The Olympia-via-Bay Area label/distro is Dave Adelson, who has curated an impressive discography starting with SPIN001 in 2005, a reissue of Black Boned Angel’s debut EP, on up to the crushing new record from Coffins (SPIN020). From doom to black metal to flat-out weirdness, 20 Buck Spin stands for handpicked quality. This week, we’ll cover the label’s latest offerings, as well as talk to the man himself.

by Cosmo Lee

The UK’s Humanfly are really a ’70s psych/prog band who got trapped in the ’00s and decided to make the most of it. Thus, they update psychedelic tones and spacy synths with heavy riffs and beautifully robust production. Lazy comparisons will lump them in with the NeurIsis sound, but while the band embodies elements of that aesthetic, “slow and melodic” is the extent of it. The main fault of NeurIsis bands today is that they confuse balancing light and dark with mining a mediocre middle. All too often such bands muck about between pretty and heavy, not really exploring either.

Nenhuns Deuses Nenhuns Mestres

Humanfly aren’t so. Their light and dark extend upwards and downwards; the high end sparkles with spiraling melodies, and the low end doesn’t skimp on heaviness, though it’s more hardcore-gone-sludge than metal. Such use of the full frequency spectrum recalls the mighty Year of No Light, though Humanfly are more expansive. Unlike many other bands, when they wax psychedelic, Humanfly aren’t merely biding time until the next loud part. They let synths whoosh and build skyward with wide-eyed innocence; when they threaten to float into oblivion – only then do they drop the hammer. Unlike calculatingly loud-soft-loud NeurIsis clones, Humanfly still turn corners to see where they’ll lead.

Buy:
20 Buck Spin
Humanfly MySpace

Related posts:

1. Stormcrow / Laudanum – Sacred Death
2. Metal Mixtape: 20 Buck Spin Sampler 2009
3. Catacombe – Memoirs
4. Strange in Stereo #1: Echtra, Ararat, Coil
5. 20 Buck Spin update: Kylesa, Coffins, more