There is the commonly bandied around metaphor that life is supposedly a journey, a journey that ebbs between loves and losses, drives and disappointment. Life is also rarely said to be a smooth venture, with the metaphor often collocating with a mention of ‘bumps’, ‘hurdles’ or other such obstructions that may mar the path. Yet, in spite of its inherently intangible nature, the metaphor of ‘life is a journey’ nonetheless appears to be audibly embodied within Hammock’s most recent output, ‘The Second Coming Was a Moonrise’. An absolute chronicle of the innermost and outermost workings of human experiences, ‘The Second Coming Was a Moonrise’ is an intimate yet expansive artistic body, possessing a sense of wonder at its core.
For over twenty years, Hammock, the Nashville-formed duo consisting of Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson, have fused ambient post-rock, neoclassical and shoegaze elements into something distinctly their own. Culminating in hypnotic sonic atmospheres that have garnered significant critical acclaim, the band have continued to employ their signature dense production and ethereal grandeur to its most thorough extent yet.
Of the album, which is released via the band’s own label Hammock Music, Byrd stated he hoped it could sound like “sitting on the roof of a car, when being young was serious and one night was like the end of the world”. No song encapsulates such a sentiment more than the album’s opener, 'Inbreaking’, with its percussive pangs of imminence and flurries of excited synths. ‘Inbreaking’ appears to be built upon a youthful awe, with its instrumentation appearing simultaneously spine-tinglingly close and yet overwhelmingly vast. Almost as if lifted from the score of a coming-of-age film, the track is immediate evidence of the duo’s ability to bottle potent generational wonders.
Further evidence of such youthful drive, or rather of youthful angst, prickles within the poignant ‘Chemicals Make You Small’. Featuring guest contributions from Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips - a group who have similarly increasingly embraced psychedelia within their recent releases - ‘Chemicals Make You Small’ is a hazy yet tender nod to drug-fuelled escapes from small town narrow-mindedness. Essences of fleeting, hope-laden escapism blend seamlessly into a deeper, forlorn longing - both set to the weighty sonic backdrops that Hammock excel in.
Even within an album that houses ten cinematic successes, the brightest star within ‘The Second Coming Was a Moonrise’ is its eponymous track. Named after Byrd’s LSD-tinted viewing of a moonrise, the track emotively encapsulates the wonder and surreality of the event. With quickening instrumentation comes a brightening of the celestial beacon, as synths - almost choral in quality - foster the belief that the divine could in fact be imminent. Yet as the track progresses, Hammock, as if aware of the profundity of the earlier sonic weight, manipulate the instrumentation into a lingering lull - providing a moment of reflective tenderness to register that the Second Coming was indeed just a moonrise.
Throughout ‘The Second Coming Was a Moonrise’, Byrd and Thompson have struck an artful balance between seriousness and warmth, moving effortlessly between a grandeur that appears somewhat grave, and an intimacy that is uniquely warm. Chronicling the journey of both the strange and the beauty of the human experience, Hammock’s most recent release is a confident synthesis of the pair’s extensive artistry. The Second Coming may have been a moonrise, but Hammock’s talent is indisputable.