Hookworms' harrowing, fuzzbathed odyssey, Pearl Mystic, follows in the sludgy steps of Sonic Youth, echoing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Flaming Lips at their most squealing and raw. The lo-fi record's stoned post-punk temperament may not be entirely user-friendly but it is frequently absorbing and not without wormy hooks. The crunchy chords and washed out vocals will estrange some even as they provide the mystic edge the LP's title alludes to.
On lead single "In Our Time," Hookworms provide their most accessible bit of cosmic distortion. The Leeds-based drone act may tend to bask too much in their own artiness, but there is something mesmerizing about their experiments in decaying sound. The final flush of sonic warbling that screams down into nothingness at the end of "In Our Time" provides a devilish denouement to an otherwise loose, gently ominous, track.
Pearl Mystic is a spacey, star/shoegazer of an album. Still beauty bursts, great and terrible (and often terrifying) from beneath the centrifugal swirling. The band is more than promising, having already arrived at an effectively unsettling Fucked Up-meets-The Doors sound. Though genuine songwriting may occasionally get lost in a gray ocean of experimentation, Pearl Mystic provides an entrancing psychedelic experience that establishes itself immediately on the raucous opener "Away/Towards" and alternately moves away and towards brilliance over the course of its fairly short, steely running time.
Grade: B
