Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

Woozy, low-slung, detuned, twanging, questing, nagging, dissonant, dreaming… Hundred Weight Hammer is a pure disorientation groove.

Hundred Weight Hammer’s brilliantly weird urban voodoo visual was created by tomato’s Simon Taylor. “I made the masks in the studio with my assistant Leina. The performers are actors, dancers and architects. What was really interesting to see was how they each chose and inhabited their own masks, then brought them to life. These inanimate objects suddenly became human.”

Hundred Weight Hammer features Tyler from Black Country New Road on bass.

If you like Bruce Lee, Ring Road, Peggy Sussed, Boy Boy Boy… then Hundred Weight Hammer belongs to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knGbjeIqkUs

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

The Gorillaz.

I'll need a few listens to decide on this one.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

So cool.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

Not my cup of tea but points for really stretching stylistically. It'd be interesting to hear older Underworld songs performed in this live-sounding way, with real-ish drums and real-ish bass and largely unprocessed vocals.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

lol wtf

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

ohmyfukkk! This track is everything! One of the best things since the 90s!

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

If you like Bruce Lee, Ring Road, Peggy Sussed, Boy Boy Boy... then Hundred Weight Hammer belongs to you.

wow, can't stand two of these songs, let's see where this goes!!

.....

well, that was terrible, but not maddening! I'm going to pretend it was for a soundtrack and ignore that one forever.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

This had a mid-90's Soul Coughing vibe for me. Slacker jazz, they called it. I used to like some of Soul Coughing's funky bass and hip hop beats and samples and beat poetry (e.g. Circles, Screenwriters Blues, Blame, etc.).

Anyway, kind of weird to hear a rougher, looser live feel from our electronically programmed Favorite band.

If this didn't have the sloppy bass but a synth synchopated bassline.... If a more danceable beat...and especially if it excluded the high pitched backing vocals.... Well, itd be a different song that I'd like better!

I have a hard time believing this will make it to the album. But then, who knows? Ring Road, Boy Boy Boy and Trim all made it to record, and I don't like any of them much. It's plenty different and we can't love all tracks, I suppose.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

The lyrics are killer. The sound is dope. The video is insane. Love it.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

Ok, not to be overly critical, but here goes:
Simon Taylor has more artistic talent and credentials than all of us.
But those masks? The video? This is something i could have/did create in art school in 7th grade.
I excuse a lot of Tomato videos as "high art concept" (see "Diamond Jigsaw" and "Louisiana"), but this is ...not so great.
It's a cardboard masquerade that we've all done at childhood birthday parties (down to the crappy creases and glue you can detect in the video)...only difference is, they're getting paid and accompanying a mediocre track with mediocre visuals. The black and white trick isn;t fooling anyone either.

Grump old man rant over. Nah, still upset. It's not fresh and new or ironic. It's just "art, don't question it or you don't get it". Oh, i went to art school, so i sort of get it.

Responsible replies are welcome

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

no thanks,

not everything works.

later
-1

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

Kinda catchy, but it's not really for me.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

Oh I really enjoyed that. The vocals were all utterly ludicrous, but in a very entertaining way. Love the synths. Very atypical, I totally get why a lot of people aren't digging, and I'd be very surprised if it made it to the album, but a nice surprising four minutes that I liked a lot.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

now that you mention it, yeah, I totally hear it. Soul Coughing were one of my favorite bands growing up. I wonder what inspired them to make this track.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

Isn’t this a lot of Tomato’s MO though?
You do something kind of raw and unfussed, and fingers crossed that its simplicity clicks with it in a decidedly un-techno and un-expected way. Not to be That Fan about it, but that’s how I understand what “dirty” has historically meant in Underworld’s context. Sometimes it's just not going to work. This whole track is a miss for me, might as well with the video too.
Time for some cheek though: if you went to art school then how is being able to channel 7th grade projects as an adult a bad thing ;)

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

Soul Coughing yes. Immediately think Gorillaz too.

and I loathe Boy Boy Boy. But... i dont hate this. Which I'm shocked by. I thought I would, but i didnt.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

I think it's great! (but then I also really liked 'Bruce Lee' and 'Ring Road'... hated 'Boy Boy Boy' though)

It has a looseness that was absent from 'Trim'

Definitely hear a Gorillaz vibe, especially with the pitched up "I wish I wish" backing vocals, and a bit of a Soul Coughing feel as well...

As far as the video - I think it's more of a situation where it's something well made, presented as if it was 'simple craft.' Like, I mean - those masks are harder to make than you'd think, and the lighting of the video is great, especially if it wasn't in a proper studio.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

The video's not my jam either, but I'm sympathetic because I think Simon's jamming and improvising as much as Underworld are. It's pretty remarkable that there's a new video for every piece of new music. But not all of them are going to be good.

There is precedent for this kind of thing, of course. I think of the King of Snake video that was just a guy in a cheap costume walking around; or that guy dressed in black dancing around a white studio. Underworld has frequently been adverse to "polished" videos. Like, Underworld is my favorite band but I can't name one music video among my favorite music videos.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

I was going to mention that KOS video too...

And aren't there versions of KOS & NUXX where it's just that guy dressed in black dancing around a white studio? I might be misremembering, b/c there also was an early 'sound reactive application' with him in it (so think early iTunes 'visualizer', but like he'd move certain body parts depending on the sound)

...and well - the entire visual campaign around AHDO was pretty 'simple' as well (close ups of clay, a balloon, and an avocado)

I also agree in regards to the idea that Simon's jamming and improvising as much as Underworld are... and it's surprising to see how well they've been so far. A video a week (more or less) is fucking hard - especially if you're not just replicating whatever the previous thing was

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

You raise good points, and I know my critical post was snarky and perhaps unfair to the spirit of what UW and Taylor are doing throughout the Drift endeavor. I just love so much a well-crafted video, and we've had plenty from Tomato over the years, even in Drift. This film just struck me as thrown together down to poor craft of the masks, questionable edits ( watch the background actors), and attempted added import by being in b&w.
Just not my cup of tea.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with appropriating or reinvention or nostalgia in art. Though, usually say, add something new or run the risk of people claiming you're low on new ideas.

Total kudos for the creation of new visuals to go with Drift tracks. Dexter's Chalk, Custard Speedtalk, Listen to their No, Universe of... Have all been great! I'm perhaps overreacting to the video's lofi feel as an outshoot of not enjoying this week's track.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

For me, the video and the music really complement each other. The weirdness of the two works together to create something that's more compelling to me than either alone.

For most of the other Drift videos, I feel like either the music or the video can stand alone. Low Between Zebras is the other one that I think is complemented fully by the video.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

That's a fine perspective. Fair enough.

For me, this is the worst track from Drift, beating out Molehill as most left field/pointless. I can't shake the feeling I heard this before on a Soul Coughing record in the 90's. So I relistened to all of the SC albums and... They did the lofi jazz/beat much better.

As for Molehill, I've been holding back, but here goes... My favorite band of all time is Genesis, specifically their 1971-1981 output. Molehill is worse than their early b-sides. interpret that as you may. Proggy, but out of context.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

Sounds like a lot of Molehill hate has come out of the woodwork the past couple days. Unfortunately, I have to agree, easily the worst Drift track for me. When it comes on, I have this almost irrational, visceral hatred well up inside me. It's weird. I don't think any other UW track elicits that kind of response in me.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

I still don’t get it. Standalone it does not much for me, but in context of the release I like it. It works well for me as a weird little brother of Treat of Rain. Nothing has yet reached the level of Barking. Not even close as terrible. I still can only listen to the 2nd disk of barking.
This is not all good, but nothing is worse then Bronze here

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

I think itÂ’s recently cropping up on my end because thereÂ’s not much point being a poopypants about things, but now that some time has passed we can be adults and have a sitdown with what a non-starter this track is
By all means take the turns less taken, but for godÂ’s sake recognize your limits and donÂ’t abandon your strengths by doing things completely left handed either. Some people here have given me a clue on how this can be appreciated, but I canÂ’t understand how they can talk about having last minute sessions because the original planned track wasnÂ’t good enough, but then come out with something like this.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

I am rather fond of HWH. It works for me well enough that I'm looking forward to it through the beginning of the EP. Molehill bothered me from the outset and it hasn't gotten any better. The entirety of Karl's humming feels like it should be the rising final 3 seconds of a song, but it never goes anywhere else or departs from anywhere to get to that point. Every moment that I feel it has finally reached its crescendo it keeps going.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

I love HWH. That bass is killer. The video is perfect for the track. And I love the image of Bram Stoker paddling in the sea. At Whitby.

Re: Drift Ep. 4, Part 3 - Hundred Weight Hammer
 

yup, yup, 100%, right there with you!

I never skip that track!