“Brooding undertones threat[en] to engulf the vocals as the percussion presses forward as though towards some imminent break or change.” So we wrote of single ‘Can I Leave Me To?’ from Parallel Lines, the debut EP from Des Moines, Iowa duo Holding Hour back in September. “What results is a track full of conflict, between calmness and motion, darkness and light, not to mention that internal disquiet of a person coming to understand how they might be responsible for the less than perfect conditions of a relationship.” The song was typical of a release concerned with the different shades of emotion present within any given experience, looking to push beyond surfaces to explore the ambiguous depth within.
Parallel Lines is now out, and the rest of the songs are no less nuanced and probing. Be it the title track, which draws upon the titular image to suggest a nascent alienation creeping into a relationship, or ‘Come Undone’ with its tender tones looking for a way back towards the intimacy lost. Holding Hour have made their name with a blend of dream pop and shoegaze, and the spectrum of sounds here is as diverse as the moods it explores. Set against the energy of some of the other tracks, ‘Vertical Hold’ is altogether more sedate. A languid, spacious track which evokes something of the deceleration which accompanies melancholy, the vocals barely murmur as though delivered to an empty room.
But it is ‘Colors Talk’ which might be standout on the EP. Bringing together the threads found in the others songs, it feels like the release’s centrepiece, and perhaps the clearest expression of its themes. The song is in-part inspired by the artist and art educator Josef Albers, whose work explored how colours interact and influence one another when placed in close proximity, but also a deeply personal exploration of what it means to be shaped by ones surroundings and moods. “I was also going through a rough time with my partner at the time, who had recently been diagnosed bipolar,” lead Marissa Kephart describes. “He had had a manic episode where certain colors had been talking to him. I was deeply reflective during this time in how being surrounded by his energy had changed me and this song was born out of all those things coming together at once.”
Parallel Lines is out now and available via streaming services.