Having returned just last month with the first release in more than a decade and a half, HLLLYH are back with another song, Uru Buru. The phoenix to the messy electronic punk flames that were The Mae Shi, HLLLYH are gearing up for their forthcoming album, which is both opened by and (sort of) shares its name with this latest song.
Kicking off the album, entitled URUBURU, Uru Buru establishes some of the themes that run through the album. The album’s core focus is featured heavily here, with the release centred on the concept of being trapped in vicious cycles. The song builds towards a crescendo, as the band sing about the twisted shape of Klein jars and the repeated patterns of humanity. We learn and re-learn the same lessons over and over, twisting in on ourselves, and even the song’s title is repeating itself, in the form of a palindrome.
Politics has never felt more stuck in an endless cycle than it has right now. We see moments of inclusivity and liberalism, followed by periods of retreat and isolation. Both states are responses to what preceded them, yet there appears to be no way to establish a steady state of progress. Instead, so much human effort is spent on the latitudinal shift, vs longitudinal progress.
Whilst Dead Clade was one of the new album’s oldest songs, dating back to the days of the Mae Shi, Uru Buru is one of the newest songs on the new album. Here it comes backed with the b-side Cherry Blossom Color Season, a cover of a song from the frankly insane Katamari Damacy video game series. Katamari Damacy has been in my life a fair amount recently, as my son has developed an affection for the weirdness of game designer Keita Takahashi’s eclectic and creative games, especially Wattam. Katamari has also recently made a rather joyous reappearance in the form of the Apple Arcade game, Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE, which adds modern social media parlance to the game in a way that feels deeply ironic and delightful. For the record, Katamari Damacy is the most HLLLYH video game, and Cherry Blossom Color Season is delightful unhinged. Check out Uru Buru below.