Human Pyramids – Planet Shhh!

 “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”

–Aldous Huxley

FINALLY we have the release of a full length from Human Pyramids titled Planet Shhh!. If you are not familiar, the band came out of nowhere last year with a terrific four track EP and quickly became my favorite new band. Full disclosure: I’ve since come to know Paul who is the man with the plan and I directed two music videos for tracks off the EP which also appear on the full length.

So, what does the full length sound like?

It’s the world we live in. Bits of this and that strewn about in a way that shouldn’t work, but together in great craft and respect for pop song formation inspires you to dance, think, and appreciate your luck in being alive to hear it. Paul has pulled from artists all around the world to make this happen and that allows for ideas to truly collide with instrumentation and arrangements that form a universe all their own.

My favorite track is still the opener, “Tall Tales“. There is something about how it layers and builds toward an end you imagine, that then goes further and further, and I cannot get over it. No doubt there’s something to do with the origin point of my experience, but I’ve loved it since I first heard it, was happy my music video for the track worked so well to support it, and am glad it kicks things off in high fashion here.

The heaviest track is undoubtedly “A Town Called Malaise,” which hammers at you second to last for the first thirty seconds or so and then transforms into a stutter of computer screens and office space philandering. Obviously my reading into a narrative that may or may not be there, but as I sit at an office desk dealing with the flood of information before me this seems as fitting as any soundtrack to the cataclysm of our experiences in virtual environments.

What we get for a finale is “Bus Stop Polka,” which is another hyperkinetic freak dance that builds much like its opener and in a flash is gone. Leaving you with a need to start the journey over, hit repeat, and swell with its waves again.

Throughout the music is richly detailed, and uniquely its own, traveling around the world providing a taste of what it means to be alive; and with this release I am excited. It can be hard to follow-up a great single or EP with a full album that delivers on the promise, but here they have done just that; they’ve listened to the world, rearranged it to suit their needs, and dispersed an expression that identifies with lived experience while inspiring investigation of worlds unknown.

a town called malaise, aldous huxley, anobium, anobiumlit, bus stop polka, garrett tiedemann, human pyramids, hysterical realism, music, music review, oxide tones, paul russell, planet shhh!, slider, tall tales