Hammer - Parabola EP

September 20, 2019 - Feel My Bicep

There’s something delightfully refreshing about the way Hammer makes music. It feels physical and alive. Glittering in cavernous space, emitting vibrations which echo off the walls and stack up to a larger-than-life sound. But it’s also reminiscent of the soundtrack to your middle school science teacher’s favorite educational VHS tape from childhood. I can see her rolling in the tube TV now. Dim the lights. Press play. Watch that fusion reaction happen in Technicolor™®.

Electronic music can be so sentimental. With Parabola, his latest EP release on Feel My Bicep Records, Hammer, a.k.a Rory Hamilton, once again demonstrates his mastery of the modern analog imagination. A palatable blend of vintage synths, playful musicality, and a pure, unmistakable love of science demands a memorable mood and optimistic vision. 

Parabola’s tracks are a little more laid-back than the C-Space EP he released back in 2018 (you can read more of my thoughts on that one here). They are still brimming with Hammer’s signature potential energy, like rubber bands pulled taut and about to spring. But he’s wielding that power now with a more delicate touch, stretching and releasing it between his fingers, thoughtfully pulling it in and out of the undercurrent. 

The title track ‘Parabola’ is a groovy opener. With a low-key curiosity, it asks—what does a human imagine a supercomputer imagines its insides to sound like?

‘Panoptic’ introduces urgency with it’s rolling bass-line and ethereal ghost melodies. It asks—how does one be loud in this existence?

‘Entropy’—my favorite track—pounds around you in percussive bliss, but not without a joke. It asks—where does the mind go when you sneeze? 

With carefully curated textures, impeccable production, and allusions to the brilliant majesty of man discovering the universe, Parabola is a cohesive collection of questions and a pleasant addition to Hammer’s small-in-quantity-but-high-in-quality discography. 

Cave dwellers, I dare you to listen to this EP and hold onto your pessimism, your nihilism, your defeatism. Do us all a favor. Stare into the irresistible light and melt, please. ☔