GHUM - The Coldest Fire EP

The flagrant overuse of 'post-punk' as a musical signifier is starting to irritate my increasingly fragile middle-aged temperament... I mean just how much abuse can an already elastic term suffer? But it's not GHUM's fault and in reality, it serves a crude purpose in broadly waving a tattered flag of interest in my direction, leading me to delights like the Coldest Fire e.p.

Already this thrillingly intense band are suffering descriptions marking them out as Joy Division indebted. Let's get this straight, just as not every funk act is a James Brown clone then neither is every vaguely post-punk artist a JD rip off.

It brings me great joy to have a new band send shivers down my spine from the opening notes of a song. GHUM do just that with Saturn, pounding bass and drums, scorching guitar and vocals that tell of desperation with a cool rage that never suffers the anticlimax of boiling over into cliche. As a lyric, 'From Monday to Sunday...' is a cryptic short story in itself, you instantly apply to your own reality, as the songs you really love allow you to do. For me, it tells of kicking against the frustration of everyday life, for you who knows? And that's the magic of great music.

That this band know what they're doing is eminently clear.

And guess what? They don't let up over the following three tracks. By the end of this all too brief e.p. you're left with the reassuring feeling that GHUM are the real deal, fit to be considered on their own merits and not measured against the past.

In times of turmoil and frustration, whether personal or political or both, music as vital as this is like a balm. It doesn't really sooth but it sure feels like a way to release some of that pent up emotion without causing damage.

More please, and make it soon.

https://ghum.bandcamp.com/