What do you get when you mix a simmering caldron of synthesisers, rigid drum machines and distorted guitars? Add to that melting pot a tongue and cheek swipe at the North-South divide, through a stunning call and response vocal delivery, and you’ve got yourself a contender for the most exciting single of 2020. Out on Leeds independent label Dance To The Radio, Take Arms follows a string of single releases by Low Hummer in the cursed year of 2020.
The Hull quintet blur the lines between guitar music and electronica, Take Arms is a riotous post-punk number wrapped in a wonky electronic straightjacket. Weighted by it’s untouchable bass growl and rhythmic strut, vocally the track picks it’s punches and allows the listener an afterthought, “Do you think the southerners wish that they were northern?”. Low Hummer discuss social isolation, misinformation and class warfare -among other subjects – with a snappy deadpan delivery that pushes the listener to think outside of mere escapism.
The track pushes it’s tempo and moves into a chorus that leans on a power-hungry and guitar-heavy approach, moving Low Hummer’s new single into euphoric territory. Vocalist and guitarist Daniel Mawer comments, “I was pretty engrossed in the idea of the end of the world when I wrote ‘Take Arms’. I wanted to write a rallying call that would attempt to address everyone, at a point in the near future where we are at the edge of no return.” The band are currently working on their debut record which is due in 2021. Find Low Hummer on Spotify here.
Words by Karl Johnson
hardofhearingmagazine.com 