Album Review: The Hundred In The Hands - Red Night

The Hundred In The Hands return with their Sophomore album, Red Night, embracing an icy digitalism that recalls mid-'90s 4AD or the more recent work of HTRK. Where those songs tend to be stripped back, with a minimalism that enhances the sense of isolation, these tracks are dense. With no trace of analogue instruments in sight, string pads, synth stabs and electronic bass-lines lay heavy over distant drums. Red Night shares its progenitors' sense of chilly distance, but here it's the conjured sense of alienation, lost in the midst of a giant crowd rather than being truly alone.

There's a distinctly British feel to the album, but the vocals betray the band's American roots. Eleanore Everdell recalls Jullee Cruise, singing the Twin Peaks theme: all injured ingénue, drenched in reverb and afire with loss or desire. It's a potent combination and her voice weaves in and out through the music to good effect, lost momentarily as she skips away through a haze of smoke before emerging again to whisper breathily into your ear.

The album is strongest when the music stays upbeat. Tracks like Stay The Night and highlight Keep It Low throb with a restrained energy that will sit comfortably on a late night dancefloor and while the consistency is varied, it makes for a pleasantly coherent album. Repeated listens, particularly through headphones, bring to light some of the weaknesses in the compositions – the songs a little too glossy and confected, the influences too readily apparent – but for the most part Red Night is a well-constructed album that merges a modern sensibility with a convincing sense of '90s retro.