Hood - The Hood Tapes

The final chapter in the Hood story sees its first release as a standalone record having previously been available as a tour-only CD back in 2005 and then featured as part of the Recollected boxset issued a few years later. To borrow a phrase from Chris Martin, as final transmissions go, it's more a comma than a full stop, and seems to flow both ways through Hood's recorded history. There's blown out lo-fi confessionals, scuzzy Sebadoh-like guitar miniatures, incongruous electronic experiments and most obviously, numerous instances of that distinctly lonely Hood sound, which seems to eternally channel both the majesty and horror of the English countryside in equal measure. The private, off-the-cuff feel of The Hood Tapes is actually probably it's greatest strength, another prime example of their universe building approach. Not much, really, sounded like Hood back then, not sure there's much now that does either, though you can see their fingerprints all over these days - in Bons and the Spillage Fete camp, in the inner world experimentation of the Gothenburg scene++. Lovely to have this ushered back into the light, even if just for a moment.