Get Ready for a Dose of Superhuman Happiness
Photo by Nathan West, courtesy of Girlie Action Media
Brooklyn’s own Superhuman Happiness released its debut album Hands this week on the The Royal Potato Family label. Filled with lush guitar riffs intertwined with the roaring saxophone, analog keyboard melodies, and precise percussion, it’s like a playground for the ears.
The relentlessly creative band has captured the magic of their electrifying live performances and created a collection of songs that run the gamut from syncopated claps that represent the world’s earliest music to the coronation grandeur of church bells, art-pop dance beats, disco slides, math rock angularity and life-affirming emotions that reflect the band’s moniker.
Album cover for Hands
The lyrics to Superhuman Happiness songs come at you in a flurry of pop sensibility, but like the ideas that inspired the entire album, they lean metaphysical. Guitarists Luke O’Malley and Ryan Ferreira trade highlife picking and revving power chords as Nikhil Yerawadekar’s ropey bass lines weave and bob through the pulsing beats issued from Miles Arntzen’s drum kit. Lush accents and waves of sound make their way from Jared Samuel’s array of analog keyboards and Eric Biondo’s slyly subversive but playful harmonies. Stuart Bogie’s horns, supported by long-time friend and collaborator Colin Stetson, round out Hands’ rich sound.
The foundation for the songs on Hands was created by everyone playing a series of hand-clapping games at the beginning of each rehearsal. It was the spark that initiated a truly collaborative process.
“The album was cultivated through a shared method of composition in order to make something greater than any one individual. Who are our influences? More than anything, this band has seven main influences: each member,” says Bogie. “We actually play like this; the record was culled from live performances and doesn’t contain any loops or the like. It is a handmade musical affair, which made the title easy to come by!”
Soak in some Superhuman Happiness at the band’s record release party, March 29 at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC