{"id":642517,"date":"2026-10-27T05:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T05:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642517\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T05:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T05:56:08","slug":"hysterical-love-project-februarys-album-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642517\/","title":{"rendered":"Hysterical Love Project: February\u2019s Album Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

With little information circulating about the duo, the anonymity surrounding February\u2019s Album only adds to its sense of mystery. \u201cI have a long-lasting obsession with perfect loops that you feel you could listen to forever,\u201d Zwanikken said<\/a> in what appears to be the group\u2019s only published interview, and you can hear that fascination in the way these tracks lock into their grooves early and subtly explore their curvature. The dubby rhythm of \u201cMyopia for Kindness\u201d has a weight that heaves like factory gears shifting, layers of steamy reverb billowing off in waves, yet with an intimate clarity gifted by Brooklyn Mellar\u2019s misty voice. Guitars practically seep from the mix, spiraling downward alongside the endlessly crashing hits of \u201cThe Moraliser,\u201d and sidewinding through the barren, beatless \u201cWindow Down,\u201d wobbling through a veil of unsettlingly phased out tape hiss as if Codeine<\/a> took the wrong medication.<\/p>\n

But there are plenty of other influences whirring away under the hood, too. You can hear the sickly rhythms of Seefeel<\/a> and Bark Psychosis<\/a> commingling with one another, radiating a shimmering coarseness that\u2019s equal parts Chain Reaction and \u201990s Kranky. It all blends together to give February\u2019s Album a unique nocturnal glint. When the duo does commit to laying down beats, they do real justice to the dark, otherworldly feeling those old trip-hop classics captured, but from a fresh, blurry perspective. \u201cThinking Woman\u2019s Lament\u201d is a particular highlight, seemingly materializing out of nothingness; its hypnotic pulse draws you in even as Mellar\u2019s detached voice remains hazily out of reach. Toward the end of \u201cLimbo,\u201d all the flickering sounds the band has woven throughout suddenly drop out, leaving only a guttural throb of bass in its wake. Hysterical Love Project never feel like they\u2019re simply performing easy nostalgia tricks. You\u2019ve heard these sounds before, but they\u2019re not quite like you remember. They slip through your fingers as you try to grasp them, and the best you can do is watch them slither away and start to change again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With little information circulating about the duo, the anonymity surrounding February\u2019s Album only adds to its sense of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4958,156,157,111,139,69,1251],"class_list":["post-642517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}