Hills are one of my favourite bands of recent times, a Swedish collective who only seem to emerge from time to time, but when they do they always seem to leave a big impression on me. Their last album, ‘Master Sleeps’ (their second), was originally released by in 2011 and re-pressed on vinyl by Rocket Recordings in 2013 is still one of my most played; and ‘The Vessel’ from that album is quite possibly the track I listen to the most…it always helps to get me out of a slump.
Furthermore the band’s difficult to find eponymously titled debut album is being re-pressed by Yorkshire label Cardinal Fuzz on vinyl on a foiled sleeve with a bonus cd of live tracks from Hills recent performance with the legendary Swedish progg band Träd Gräs Och Stenar (a later incarnation of Harvester/ International Harvester) this coming November, cannot wait for that one.
Hills then emerged to give a wholly memorable performance at the Liverpool PsychFest in 2014 as part of the Rocket Recordings stage, and it is through Rocket Recordings that the band have announced the release of a new album, ‘Frid’, at the end of August 2015. Were this news not exciting enough, the announcement also comes with a new taster track, Milarepa, which sounds just amazing. Named after one of Tibetan Buddhism’s more well known and prolific poets, ‘Milarepa’ begins with cacophonous droning tones which become enmeshed with Eastern rhythms with both themes fighting for supremacy; the chaos and the beauty – something that is lightly resolved by the end of the track. While the track brought to mind ‘Bring Me Sand’ from ‘Master Sleeps’ it seems to me that there might well be more power in this new work, which bodes very well for this release.
The digital versions of ‘Frid’ (cd/download) are available from Rocket Recordings, and while the vinyl is sold out there past experience of Rocket releases should mean that there will be plenty available through normal outlets.
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