This Hisses – This Magazine https://this.org Progressive politics, ideas & culture Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:54:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.4 https://this.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-Screen-Shot-2017-08-31-at-12.28.11-PM-32x32.png This Hisses – This Magazine https://this.org 32 32 One Track Mind: This Hisses – Surf Noir – Gold On Fire https://this.org/2012/06/14/one-track-mind-this-hisses/ Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:54:13 +0000 http://this.org/?p=10498 Grungy, seductive, and lusciously poisonous, Winnipeg’s This Hisses are a band I have been aching to see live for ages. They are often categorized as surf rock – as their album title Surf Noir alludes to – but there is more sepia than sunblock in their sound, as much cabaret as beach. Vocalist Julia Ryckman is a former opera singer, and her powerful voice has a maple smokiness and can suddenly turn sharp as a broken bottle. “Gold On Fire” is an ominous, throbbing track that threads its way sinuously around the listener’s throat before suddenly tightening like a merciless noose. The organic, grooving drums roll and crash like a blue-black tide coming in at midnight, and the fuzzed-out guitar tone conjures a kind of distortion somewhere between the romantic sensation of gazing tinted glass, and the panic of trying to see through a film of blood. Hypnotic and haunting, a smouldering sucker punch of a song.

This Hisses will be performing at NXNE at The Rochester (423 College Street) on Saturday, June 16th at 8pm. Listen to Gold on Fire here.

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