Our immovable style guide calls them THIS, my own sense of propriety is inclined to call them This, but this magpie-like rock quartet from south Wales’ valleys call themselves THiS. The song titles on Hoc Est, their self-released debut LP, maintain such a typographical approach, written as RHYTHM iN PiECES, STiLL and so forth. These idiosyncracies are flaunted while THiS maintain a veil of anonymity: no names, photos or gigs, as yet.
One thing possible to glean is that THiS is the latest project of Alex Wiltshire, most recently in The Guns – a group who formed in the mid-00s and chalked up local popularity with a sound equal parts garage punk, hair metal and post-hardcore, and songs called It’s On Like Donkey Kong and other eager-to-please things. Hoc Est, though, indicates THiS take themselves a little more seriously than The Guns. Afforded a plush Big Rock sound – it was reputedly recorded live, and mixed at Abbey Road – the band fold prog ambition into a millennial metal frame, and pepper the result with danceable postpunk and auteurist pop. There are pretty much no choruses to be found.
The result, while uneven and Frankenstein-y, justifies its evident ambition. “For fans of The Beatles, Oasis, QOTSA, Prince, Deftones, Björk, Converge,” THiS write; “pull the other one,” you might think, but they swing from pole to pole with unerring confidence on this record. Are they happy to continue personally carting it round local record shops, or do they want to give the dreaded music industry a try?
Info: www.hocest.uk