In Time for Spring, On Came The Snow

"SubAudible Hum create beautiful soundscapes that perfectly compliment their poetic lyrics and poignantly crafted imagery.”
- The Stix

"A universe in lo-fi, All For The Caspian is a cluttered glory of guitars, errant strings, and plaintive poetry... I'm not kidding, it's that good.”
- Beat

"The perfect soundtrack to a gloomy city at dusk”
- Mess+Noise

"The whole experience left me speechless”
- Tsunami (9.5/10)

"A triumphant release”
- Rave

"… features driving rhythmic instrumentation tempered with pure pop bliss.”
- Rolling Stone (4/5)

The fortnight SubAudible Hum's 'In Time for Spring, On Came The Snow' started appearing on record store shelves in Aus, a few weeks before the humid birth of summer, it snowed in four states and the temperature plummeted to lower than it had been in November for more than a century. When the freezing winds hit Queensland, where the seeds of the band were planted, tens of thousands of homes and countless traffic lights switched black, wild hailstorms swirled over Brisbane, leaving a trail of damage in their wake. The album was only slightly less dramatic than the weather.

Subaudible Hum is made up of singer / songwriter Danny Griffith, his brother Joel, Simon Edwards and Ryan Nelson, who have been together now for a couple of years – and all four would be excellent company for a drink…

Their first album, 'Everything You Heard Is True', was terrifically out-of-place, arriving into an indie scene dominated by the country-tinged rock dirges of bands like The Drones; artistic instrumental groups aping The Dirty Three; and a new wave of bands influenced by post-punk with great drumbeats. SubAudible Hum sounded like none of them. SubAudible Hum had their influences, but they were contemporary and from the UK: the angst of Radiohead's darker moments and the heavily guitar-driven sound of Muse. Now however, the reaction is different…

'In Time for Spring, On Came The Snow' is less abrasive and more melodic than their first and it settles into a more individual sound. 'Art Of The State' unfolds in 3 parts, the last of which is a sublime, stomping stream-of-thought monologue. 'All For The Caspian', named with reference to the push to pump oil from the Caspian Sea, next to Iran, is the grandest track. It's drumbeat plods along like a slowed-down military march while violin and cello bloom over the righteous mantra of the title.

Griffith's political opinions are even more pointed this time around, but he still shies away from the term "political-rock”. The references to Halliburton, to bleak and faceless governments in the songs of 'In Time For Spring…' never turn into a sermon. They exist as a vague mixture of angst and resignation underpinning each track. SubAudible Hum have found the right balance. They're gloomy, to be sure, but they're also easy to like. It's liberating to hear something so deliberately crafted for enjoyment still reflect some of the difficult aspects of the world we live in.