Returning almost four years to the day after NARC labelled their dream pop inspired debut album, Nothing Stays Put, as ‘Classy and contemplative’, 2022 sees the Mark James Hammond and The Slender Blind (MJH&TSB) return with a new album and an almost entirely new musical styling. Removing some of the more ambient moments of their debut, MJHT&TSB’s new album, ‘Cast off’ lands squarely inside of the hard rock/ metal genre – varying the atmosphere of their music whilst pushing the lush melodies of their debut into new and interesting places.
“Yeah, it is different” agrees Hammond when asked about the MJH&TSB’s new direction, “on initial listening I thought that if you stood the new album next to the first album it sounded very different and if anything, the first record album was maybe more dream pop whereas this is the opposite”.
Heading towards the end of a five-year training course in Psychotherapy, Hammond credits some of the shift in sound down to his experience in higher education, and its impact onto his creativity; “The training has definitely taken my head to places that it didn’t go with the first album, and interestingly I wrote different pieces of this album during different parts of the course, so I think there’s a theme which I can hear. For me, different parts of the studying triggered different emotions, emotions which seemed to want to express themselves differently though mostly it came out as heavy guitar music and the sounds of some of the bands I listened to when I was younger like Alice in Chains and the Deftones.”
Driven throughout by the aforementioned Deftone’s styled heavy rock/ metal guitar riffs, and an aggressive guitar performance that you can hear in the record, Cast off is the work of an artist using heavy musical textures to communicate the type of deep feelings that often want to stay hidden. Standouts, The Stone Temple Pilots dirge/gutter rocker ‘No Need’ and the riff heavy opener ‘The night hag’ (a track about reoccurring nightmares relating to the death of Hammond’s mum) are brutal in parts and clearly the sound of an artist bearing his soul in service to his art – a process Hammond agrees is difficult but is ultimately artistically beneficial; “There’s a lot of dissonance on the record and at times it has been painful stuff, and maybe its safer to not bother, but I believe that if you’re willing to go there and put the hard work in it’ll be the best work.”
Yet for all of its heaviness and brutality, scratch the surface of Cast off and you’ll start to hear echoes from the MJH&TSB debut; mid album ‘Kill yr darlings’ drawing in dreamy electronica, and album end point ‘He likes Vonnegut’ returning MJH&TSB to their original dream pop sound of gentle guitars and sugar coated melodies. Perhaps, on reflection, the two albums aren’t that far apart in the end; perhaps they have very similar messages and intent. As Hammonds himself signs of with, “at first the two albums sounded very different – but after a few listens I can hear more and more similarities. The first album is reflective in parts and so is this, it’s just reflective in different ways.”
MJH&TSB, a band who might sound very different to how you remember them – but are instantly recognisable.
Rewrite above from original nonsense that was….
If higher education is designed to challenge our beliefs, and introduce us to new ways of thinking, then it’s likely that the full impacts of such study go well beyond simply ’learning something new’; potentially also affecting who we are, and how we see ourselves. A good example of this might be seen in the artistic output of Mark James Hammond of Mark James Hammond and The Slender Blind (MJH&TSB) fame.
Returning almost four years to the day after NARC labelled their dream pop inspired debut album, Nothing Stays Put, as ‘Classy and contemplative’, 2022 sees the MJH&TSB return in an almost entirely new musical styling; their new album, ‘Cast off’ landing squarely in the hard rock/ metal space – some way removed from their gentler beginnings.
“Yeah, it is different” agrees Hammond when asked about the MJH&TSB new sound, “on initial listening I thought that if you stood the new album next to the first album it sounded very different. If anything, the first record album was maybe more dream pop whereas this is the opposite”
Heading towards the end of a five-year training course in Psychotherapy, Hammond puts some of the reasoning for the shift in sound down to his experience in higher education, and its impact onto his creativity; “The training has definitely taken my head to places that it didn’t go with the first album, and interestingly I wrote pieces of this album during different parts of the course. I think different parts of the learning triggered different emotions, emotions which seemed to want to express themselves with heavy guitar music and the sounds of some of the bands I listened to when I was younger like Alice in Chains and the Deftones.”
Driven throughout by heavy rock/ metal guitar riffs, and an aggressive performance, Cast off is the work of an artist using heavy musical textures to communicate the deep feelings that grew from his work with, and in, therapy. Standouts, The Stone Temple Pilots dirge/gutter rocker ‘No Need’ and riff heavy opener ‘The night hag’ (a track about reoccurring nightmares relating to the death of his mum) are brutal in parts; the sound of an artist bearing his soul in reference to his art – a process Hammond agrees is difficult but can be artistically beneficial; “There’s a lot of dissonance on the record and at times it has been painful stuff, and maybe its safer to not bother, but I believe that if you’re willing to go there and put the hard work in it’ll be the best work.”
Yet for all of the heaviness of Cast off, scratch it’s surface and it’s still MJH&TSB at its core; mid album ‘Kill yr darlings’ drawing in dreamy electronica, and album end point ‘He likes Vonnegut’ returning MJH& to their original dream pop sound of gentle guitars and lovely melodies. Maybe, on reflection, Hammonds higher education experiences have provided different ways of expressing his core beliefs, rather than changing the band’s sound – and maybe that’s the real impact. “At first the two albums sounded very different – but after a few listens I can hear more and more similarities. The first album is reflective in parts and so is this, it’s just reflective in different ways.”