Living Hour are back. Today the Winnipeg quintet have announced their new album Internal Drone Infinity with the lead single "Wheel," a piece of hooky, delicately-noisy indie rock that maintains their reputation as one of the better contemporary bands doing the shoegaze thing right now. Like 2022's Someday Is Today, Living Hour recorded Internal Drone Infinity with Jay Som's Melina Duterte, during what a press release describes as a very cold Manitoban November.
"Wheel" grapples with the looming sense of danger that often comes with being a feminine-presenting person out and about in the world: "Twisting in my dusty gut feeling/ Prepping in my doomsday half-time skirt," vocalist Sam Sarty sings. Sarty has a good backstory for the song too:
The story of "Wheel" begins with buying a car off Facebook Marketplace in BC. Turns out the car was junk, but I had no choice but to drive it home to Winnipeg. It took 3 days. I was driving through the mountains, and the headlights were so dim, and for a stretch there was nowhere to turn off. It felt like a weird, horrific video game -- navigating the road and dodging danger and trying not to die. I also felt so deeply betrayed by all the men involved in the whole thing.
These men feel like a series of characters now. I felt so powerless in this weird system that prioritizes men and their opinions. In this song, I was able to imagine an alternate reality where I’m a vengeful spectator in these men's lives. What if I had died on the road, and what if I came back and plagued them all with my powerful essence that they so easily dismissed, contorted and took advantage of in order to sell me a fucked up car?
I fantasized about how it would feel to “fall off the wheel” and lean into this witchy, monstered realm of existence where men are de-centered. One where I would have no hesitation to put those men in the same danger they put me in.
Check out the video for "Wheel" and see the full Internal Drone Infinity tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Stainless Steel Dream"
02 "Wheel"
03 "Waiter"
04 "Best I Did It"
05 "Firetrap"
06 "Big Shadow"
07 "Texting"
08 "Little Kid"
09 "Half Can"
10 "Things Will Remain"
Internal Drone Infinity is out 10/17 via Keeled Scales/Paper Bag.
