I only happened upon this album in November ’18, when this Chicago based outfit, released the Contours digital single (see below) that would become the latest recipient of my musical obsessions and have me digging about in cyberworld for more Pool Holograph, like some sort of tech-nerd burying Bitcoin.
My affections rightly settled on this, their second and latest album, which is a fine testament to what the better modern bands can do with all manner of legendary alternative influences.
Initially tracks such as Codex Hammer (see below), 6pm and Inside Out have the anxious, fractured guitar work of Postcard Records bands such as Fire Engines and Josef K, that became popular again in the mid 2000’s when acts such as Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party mimicked and name checked them at every opportunity.
Pool Holograph ensure that accusations of plagiarism are bypassed by the mid-track development of these angular riffs into definitive melodies, to such an extent that all three tracks could be construed by the sort of people that might use such a word (young people!) as absolute bangers.
Thankfully Pool Holograph also do weird. In fact they do weird very well. Tracks such as Air Above You (see below), Threshold and Visitation mix the sultry, androgynous, vocal atmospherics of Nico to the sort of the leftfield kooky of Catatonia, whilst all manner of Siouxsie Sioux slides into view on Perennial and Visitation.
Pool Holograph are curious enough to bypass mass appeal…but to those of us who revel in the slightly obtuse, this band will never disappoint.
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