I have said it before, there are so many bands in Los Angeles that I can’t keep up, so when I write about a band when I have seen several others the same day, I try to describe what makes this band so special. A lot of bands sound kind of the same but it was not the case for Hands who was playing at the event Echo Park Rising inside the Echoplex. They have an original sound built around synth, guitars and vocals and often changing rhythms and genres in the middle of the same song, Their songs had long purely instrumental parts or were animated by Geoffrey Halliday’s soaring-in-your-face strong vocals.
The synth was central on stage but the music was extremely layered and filled with exotic rhythms and dance beats, at times borderline disco – one of their songs almost reminded me something borrowed from a Blondie track – with a few sprinkles of different things, dreamy and moody vocals, glittering synth, and lots of beats. Their original sonic landscapes gained them a lot of comparisons with no less than Radiohead, but honestly, this didn’t cross my mind when I saw them live, although I could sort of hear it when I listened to their ‘Force Facination’ song on line.
The band has only released one EP entitled ‘Massive Context’, but they nevertheless played a complete set of their complex tunes. There was no simple melody to follow but rather complex meanders taking many directions at the same time and experimental detours after one firing drumming transforming itself into a dance rhythm habited by the imposing vocals. Each song seemed to be one crazy sonic adventure.
While watching Hands, I was thinking it was probably not music you'd get right away because it was so hard to follow,… hard to follow if you use your brain, but in fact your body will sure find the way thanks to these repetitive beats.