Living Hour, the Winnipeg five-piece, has a very magnetic quality to them; their sounds—shuffling between indie pop, slowcore, shoegaze, and dreamy noise rock (a noise they classify as “yearn-core”). The tones seemed to have a gravitational pull, at least they did for me during their Pop Montreal set. I caught myself slowly inching toward the stage, through the throngs of people. It’s fitting that their latest release, which dropped the day of is called the Magnet EP.
Guitairst/bassist and vocalist Sam Sarty has a very Slow Pulp tinge to her lyricism, capturing the ache of memory and the pain and beauty of messy living; you know the things everyone experiences on the daily? The lead guitar lines from Gilad Carroll and Adam Soloway, as well as Issac tate (because yes, everyone in Living Hour is a multi-instrumentalist—I had to do a double take when I realized the guitarist switched to drums at one point), exude a droney personality, conjuring magic from the darkened and jammy moments between other members of the band. The chemistry is there and you get the sense this group has been playing together for just shy of a decade—and it’s because they have. For a sound that has many moving parts, Living Hour hits each with dark precicion.
Most of the songs for Pop live were from Living Hour’s album Internal Drone Infinity; my god, what an album—perfect for dislocating your mind for half an hour. “Wheel,” “Waiter,” “Best I Did It” in particular scratch that itch. If you didg a group like Wednesday, I recommend you flip the whole album immediately. Stare into the void, and it might just smile back.
