The quotidian slog suffered by all of us in the modern world can conceal moments of profound spirituality and meaning. Just ask Hauspoints, a post-punk outfit birthed in a "dilapidated industrial estate" in Lancashire, UK. These upstarts sport a distinctly northern flavour, and their flammable forays into snarly post-rock hold an investigative lens up to the drudgery of the mundane, illuminating the possibilities for growth and awareness that lay hidden from most. The four-piece group's debut album Eel Feeling, released on Crackedankles Records, is populated with explosive missives against acceptability and mediocrity, but also actionable moments of revelatory self-awareness.
The album is introduced with the brief "88.3 ONFM", a hallucinatory diddy driven by plasticky electronic percussion and the first soundings of frontman Palmo's bitter and sarcastic tirades. "Why don't you write a Christmas song? Why don't you play some crowd pleasers?" go the acidic lyrics, with the futility of originality in a capitalistic system being introduced, a theme which recurs across the album.
Palmo has much to say and plenty of moxie to get it out. There's no corner of society spared from his astute gaze. Run-of-the-mill spaces like supermarkets are transformed into proverbial battlegrounds ("Meat Bingo"), and these images are delivered with a mixture of Mark. E Smith-esque sneering intelectualism and Jason Williamson-type acerbic stream-of-consciousness.
All members of Hauspoints present themselves mononymously. There's Nik on bass, synths and backing vocals, Robert on guitar and backing vocals, Charlie on drums, and Palmo on vocals and guitar. Perhaps by not sharing their full names, they are making a point. Their music comes across as indifferent to popularity, and remaining somewhat private reinforces the ego-less aspirations their songs seek. And while Hauspoints ostensibly put much effort into maintaining obscurity in their opaque tunes, sometimes they slip up, creating accessible and straightforward bangers. For example, "The(e) I Am" is a highly-charged and focused album highlight, driven by raucous guitar and drums.
"Hear No, See No" references legacy artists Brian Eno, Robert DeNiro, and Quentin Tarantino as call-and-response guitars and warbly bass lines create a confusing but ultimately fun track. Beneath the veneer of spikyness hides more subtle and warm intentions, "Head To Toe" is a mostly aggressive expression, though it also features gentle electric guitar lines and celebratory trumpet from collaborator Nick Hulme.
Elsewhere, "Catflap" mixes colourful, if not wonky, electronica with Palmo's characteristic speak-singing to a curiously discombobulating effect. "What About It?" sees caustically bright riffs frame ironic references to British music culture. For example, when Mark E Smith refused to appear on Later... with Jools Holland if Jules played the piano ("What about that time Mark only agreed to play if Jules didn't?"). The kiss-off "What about it?" communicates that none of these legends are important. The mythification of art isn't something Hauspoints cares for, preferring to poke fun at those who do. The closing track, "Two Pounds Of Dirt", starts with a school disco beat carrying a kitschy 80s synth-pop sound, but the group explode this with an epic wall of intense post-rock suave.
If anything is amiss with this collection, the group never empathises with those stuck in the system they rail against. While they can transcend society's expectations with what they believe is "Common Knowledge", they seem oblivious to the privileged viewpoint they occupy as artists. Hauspoints are perenially looking down on society from the outside, perhaps forgetting that their audience is looking for ways to join them. So while the songs touch on the "everyday", they don't necessarily cater to the "everyman". This is not a true criticism and is meant to contextualise what Hauspoints do. They don't offer you a life -jacket, but they will show you where to find one.
Eel Feeling by Hauspoints is a highly-concentrated debut album, as rich with angsty expressions as it is sophisticated musical ideas. The group balances these aspects of their character with passion and finesse, though it feels they would wince at the idea of taking themselves too seriously. They aren't trying to be great, they just happen to be so.
★★★★½