ZapTown

We Are Hex
Gloom Bloom
2009 – Hex Haus
Rating: 4 out of 5

The highly anticipated debut from Indianapolis’ We Are Hex has finally arrived, and the wait is worth it. Gloom Bloom is a powerful ode to sound experimentation by a group of talented musicians that have captured something richly unique and intensely “in the moment.” As each song progresses, you never know what dark alleyway the band will take you down. This is everything you would expect and more: passion and fury, light and darkness, all feeding off of each other that gives these songs a life of its own.

Whether direct or indirect, the band puts themselves in an ideal situation by crawling back in time without trapping themselves in a retro vortex.  When New Order rose from the ashes of Joy Division, they were tapping into disco culture to propel them into a new style of dance music. With the saturation of standard pop and dance elements in today’s indie culture, We Are Hex strips away the ideology, going back to when music was dangerous and the days where The Rezillos wanted to go to Venus, The Adicts were talking about revolution, and Thurston Moore and Lydia Lunch were wigging out in Death Valley, all challenging pop culture one way or another.

Not to say that the band is really any of the aforementioned references but, to an extent, all of them combined. With the band on the move and constantly changing up styles, they escape being pigeonholed into any distinct category, constantly morphing and shape shifting before your ears.

What pleases me the most about this album is its spontaneity. Recorded practically live in their house, the untraditional studio presence works to their advantage. It is mixed and transitioned in a way that puts you on their couch and deep within the output of what the member’s experienced. Songs change from the heavily mixed to dirty and raw to simple found sounds from various outtakes.

“INDPLS” gives you the feeling of celebratory joy, urban power, and dark prowling that only gets accentuated on “Bottom Of My Belly.” Jilly Weiss’ vocal prowess displays a realistic urgency that is pushed forward by a tornadic activity of instruments swirling about, whether it is Trevor Wathen’s growling bass, Brandon Beaver’s rumbling drums, Matt Hagan’s intricate guitar work, the keyboards, the layered vocals, the time signature change up, and so on. And that’s just within one song. Before you know it, you are dragged along through purposefully bastardized early ‘60s-style girl pop  (“Noise Knot”), the taunting roar of “No FM/No AM,” or the hauntingly jagged dance number “Serious Sedatives.”

It seems with each passing listen there is something new to discover within each track. Gloom Bloom has found a way to breathe in the soul of this city and create a metropolitan melting pot of vice and virtue that will wrap around you and not let go, even after the sobering instrumental outro of “French Rough” has long since faded out.

Even though you can stream the entire album at the bands website (http://www.wearehex.com), the CD is well worth the buy for the sound quality, the flawless transitions between songs, and the gorgeous packaging.