SOTD #56 // The Hundred In The Hands: 'Dressed in Dresden'

04 May 2010, 11:24 | Written by Rich Hughes

(Tracks)

Warp Records seem to be branching out a little. Not content with cornering the market in wonderfully wonky electronica and IDM (for want of a better word), they’ve embraced some “pop” acts as well. The debut album by LoneLady, with it’s ice-cool 80′s riffs started it, but The Hundred In The Hands are continuing it.

The Brooklyn-based duo are Jason Friedman and Eleanore Everdell. Their debut release for Warp will an EP called This Desert, released on May 17th. And if that wasn’t enough, the flip side to the official single ‘Dressed In Dresden’ comes with a remix by none-other than Various Productions. It’s not what you know, but who you know…

The lead single, ‘Dressed In Dresden’, is a sparse, flitting beast of tickled rhythms and grumbling bass that’s pierced with a jagged guitar riff that comes straight from the post-punk 80′s. Eleanore’s cool vocals bring to mind The xx at their most laid-back, whilst the sparse production of the track as a whole makes me think of The Wedding Present and late 80′s Factory. Perhaps it’s just me, but there’s also a feeling of the great female fronted pop acts of the same time, like Bananarama and the Bangles – not in their grand, chart-topping nature – but the cool, almost clinical, way they’ve created a hook and a groove that works into your head, burrowing into your very fibre.. THITH are a little too angular to find teenage girls singing along into hair brushes to, but it’s that ear for a pop-tune that’ll set them up for their debut long-player, due in the Autumn.

The Hundred In The Hands: “Dressed In Dresden“