‘Beyond Wires’, the sophomore album from Berlin/Brussels post-punk group Golden Hours is out today on Fuzz Club. Alongside the release of their second full-length, the band are also releasing a video for ‘The Same Thing’ – following earlier singles ‘The Letter’, ‘Heading For The Moon’, and ‘Arctic Desert’.
Based between Berlin and Brussels, Golden Hours are Hákon Aõalsteinsson, Wim Janssens, Tobias Humble and Rodrigo Fuentealba Palavacino – an outfit of seasoned players who between them have performed as part of Gang Of Four, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Tricky, The Fuzztones and more. Golden Hours first rumbled out of the shadows in 2023 with their self-titled debut and are now emerging once more with ‘Beyond Wires’.
‘Beyond Wires’ was knit together in-between the tours and other obligations of its four members, written and recorded in rehearsal rooms in Berlin and an old mansion in Brussels. “The latter definitely put its stamp on the record with its noisy electric static bleeding into every song”, says Wim. But a band like Golden Hours never shies away from these things: they lean into it and welcome those ghostly appearances with open arms and just try to out-fuzz the buzz with layers of noise and strong melodic elements that cut through like a knife.
“With the new album, the band is stealthily moving closer to a sonic space that we can call our own”, says Wim. The sum of all the influences gathered in the recording room could easily crush any other band that doesn’t have the mileage under its belt like Golden Hours has – but for all the influences deeply encoded in its DNA, the band is able to add their flavor time and time again.
‘Beyond Wires’ is the sound of four people gathering in a Berlin rehearsal room, punching holes in a wall and picking up the fallen bits to create something new over the course of a few days. Not easily distracted or outgunned in the game of trial and error that is still their favorite tool in the creative process, Golden Hours seems to swear by the simplest of rules: “A light shakin’ of the head to the left and right will kill a weak idea in a heartbeat, when no-one says anything the idea is likely accepted. You’ve got to keep the roads clear, to let all the good stuff pass through. You can throw up road blocks in your own time.”
On the release week single ‘The Same Thing’, Wim says: “The Same Thing leans heavily on Tobias deadpan drum groove and shows the band in full repetitive kraut modus. The song was the last one added to the long-list for the album. When all tracks were recorded, the question was asked: did anyone still have any gems hidden up their sleeves? Hakon started playing this guitar riff, and we all instantly locked in, and within 15 minutes, a song structure appeared. After 2 takes, the basic track was nailed. The song took a slight turn when vocals and extra layers were added in post-production, away from the obvious and into more atmospheric realms, in sync with the overall sound of the album.”
“The song is about the inevitable that comes for you, mostly in moments when you let your guard down. Good things, bad things…The ground beneath your feet can disappear in an instant. It’s the stuff you can never prepare for unless you want to live your life in fear, hiding in a bunker somewhere in a desert where the floods can’t reach you. And it hardly ever happens to you alone, even when no one else gets hit, there’s always collateral damage, stuff that pops up and rears its ugly head years after the avalanche turned your world upside down. It’s a cleansing ritual at best if you’re able to get from under the snow. You can’t keep an eye on everything all the time, and you probably won’t see or hear it coming anyway, but as Tom Waits so beautifully put it:“We’re all gonna be just dirt in the ground”, so no need to go check on your car that fell into that sinking hole before your time is up.”
Thoughts Words Action 