Albums by this artist

Little Eyes (2001)

Hundred Hands

Little Eyes

---

» A.K. GOLD | STAFF WRITER

Hundred Hands Little Eyes Deep Elm, 2001 RiYL: Sebadoh, Pedro The Lion

Hailing from Lawrence, Kansas and featuring two members of the Appleseed Cast, Hundred Hands offers up their first release in the form of Little Eyes. Without speeding up beyond a moderato tempo, the layered arrangements sometimes result in compelling songs while other tracks are quite unexceptional. The EP-opening "A Replay" combines stark drum beats, a lovely guitar harmonic hook and lead singer/guitarist Aaron Pillar's raspy vocals with tight dynamic changes to craft one of the stronger tracks on the release.

But the mathy arrangements that fill most of the record don't click quite like they should. The repetitious guitar part that crescendos into the distortion-filled ending of "Broken Boy" fails to achieve affective tension and release, while the repeated guitar phrase on the album closing instrumental "Sunday" isn't meaty enough to serve as the drone for the three-and-a-half-minute song. Little Eyes is by no means a bad release, however, even in the span of six tracks, this first effort from Hundred Hands suffers under the weight of its sonic redundancy.

A.K. GOLD | A.K. Gold lives in Washington, D.C., where she slaves away for a non-profit organization and constantly compares everything to New York City or Chicago. She's earned her "cred" as a college radio and pre-1960 country music DJ, committed indie label street teamer, sporadic zinemaker/contributor, retired mail-order filler and occasional freelance writer. From time to time, she publishes Anecdotal Evidence, a per zine that will some day be considered for the National Book Award, or possibly not. If you want to buy a copy, or desire to write to her for some other reason, email criticgirl@hotmail.com.