Photo by Ellen Hemström and Oskar Nilsson
Slow burning Swedish post-rock outfit OH HIROSHIMA has released “Secret Youth,” the latest single from their much-anticipated fifth full-length album, All Things Shining, set for release on June 28th via Berlin’s Pelagic Records.
Now pared down to a brotherly core, All Things Shining sees OH HIROSHIMA expand further into new sonic territory as they champion the power of wonder and awe in an age of faded youth and jaded disenchantment.
Founded over fifteen years ago as a DIY recording project by brothers Jakob and Oskar Hemström, OH HIROSHIMA has outgrown their Swedish hometown of Kristinehamn to become a highly regarded studio and live project within the international post-rock scene. With four diverse full-length albums to their name encompassing elements of shoegaze, electronica, post-punk, and danceable indie-rock, OH HIROSHIMA’s All Things Shining represents a significant evolution in the band’s songwriting and soundcrafting, captured in its essence by the band’s friend, collaborator and co-producer, Magnus Linberg (Cult Of Luna).
Latest single, “Secret Youth,” steers traditional song structure toward taut, krautrock urgency, echoing the eternal conflicts of action and inertia that resonate throughout the record. Exploring the ongoing power battle between youthful naive radicalism and the calculated reasoning that inevitably comes with adulthood, “Secret Youth” pits a pendulous, pulsing rhythm section against spiraling guitar work and plaintive vocals that ask difficult questions about purpose, meaning and the ambivalence of age.
The accompanying video amplifies this introspective struggle with the vernal potential of new seedlings unnaturally reversed through manipulation of archival footage as frontman Jakob Hemström climbs a windowless tower to nowhere, becoming increasingly tangled in the miles of microphone cable left in his wake. That the video ends on the band in their element though, performing the song together as a collection of worldly possessions are immolated around them, obliterates any vestige of the past and upends the trajectory of the future in order to leave us all here and now, with nothing but the potential of the present.
Comments OH HIROSHIMA’s Jakob Hemström on “Secret Youth,” “With a more traditional song structure and a more vocal-centric approach than most of our previous work, this was an interesting song for us to write and record. As with the previous single ‘Wild Iris,’ the instant and the atmospheric walk side by side here. The lyrics deal with the naive radicalism of youth versus the distant reasoning of adulthood.”
Watch OH HIROSHIMA’s “Secret Youth” at THIS LOCATION.
Watch the band’s previously released video for “Wild Iris” HERE.
Simultaneously personal and universal, All Things Shining is a sonic exploration of the duplicitous nature of ageing; the double-edged sword of amassing life-affirming experiences that inevitably dim our perception of the world around us. However, as the album’s title suggests, OH HIROSHIMA are adamant that all is not lost; with songs inspired by timeless works of literature pivotal for Jakob and his brother Oskar throughout their lives, All Things Shining is a reminder that, against all odds, the world will always find a way to reclaim its spark and mystique.
Pelagic Records will release All Things Shining on CD, LP and digital formats. Find preorders HERE.
OH HIROSHIMA:
Jakob Hemström – guitar, vocals
Oskar Hemström – drums
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https://www.pelagic-records.com
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The post OH HIROSHIMA: Swedish Post-Rock Stalwarts Release Video For Latest Single, “Secret Youth,” Introspective Epic Taken From Forthcoming Fifth Full-Length, All Things Shining first appeared on Earsplit Compound.