Hood
The Cycle of Days and Seasons

Last year a friend came to visit me with a CD! He says, "Here, check out this album, listen to it, you won’t regret it!" The CD stayed on the desk for a couple of days without my paying attention to it. Then one day, driven by curiosity, I decided to listen to it. It was a cold winter evening, home alone, tired. The album in question is The Cycle Of Days And Seasons by Hood. Officially known as Tattersall, Parfitt, Clyde Evans, Johnson, Adams, and Adams (brothers). They come from Spofforth Hill. English scene.
From the cover and the other photos that make up the booklet, it seems that you can understand the music they compose. Images of countryside, autumnal fragments. Indeed, from the first listen, I am struck by the melancholic sound, the ever-present reverbs, the voice that is halfway between singing and speaking. An emotional sound, rich in slowed-down atmospheres and music crafted by slowly plucked guitars. Ambient atmospheres. It’s the classic (as it's been defined for years now) post-rock. In this work, there is a rich presence of trumpets, piano, and bells. For someone like me, who is passionate about artists such as Mogwai, Slint, Joan of Arc, Bark Psychosis, Flying Saucer Attack, and so on, it was a pleasant discovery. 11 tracks, interspersed as usual with moments of silence and bursts of dreary feedback, to be listened to with absolute detachment from reality and haste. Absolutely quiet. Turn off the light, headphones in the ears, darkness, and then imagine flying through mournful yet romantic atmospheres.

After this album, I bought the other works by Hood. The one I reviewed, in my opinion, is very beautiful, even though Hood reached perfection with Cold House in 2001. This was created between 1998 and 1999. I don’t know, I recommend it. It's an experimentation that leads from the previous work to the aforementioned masterpiece, Cold House.