Hiraeth: Bittersweet – review – ALBUM OF THE WEEK!

Hiraeth: Bittersweet

Galacy Records

Digital album/ Stream

Available Now

Liquid Drum & Bass maestro Hiraeth deliver his debut album. And what an album it is. 

The Liquid Drum & Bass scene is not really known for producing albums. The artists involved in its creation are more likely to release several EPs in fairly quick succession, with each EP perhaps having a flavour all of its own.

This enables artists to record and release tracks quite quickly, releasing many EPs over the course of a few months, often on different labels. This can make being a fan an interesting thing, as EPs can come thick and fast and it takes a bit of effort and dedication to keep up. It can also make it quite tricky to follow an artist’s creative path.

But sometimes, an artist releases a whole album’s worth of Liquid Drum & Bass and we get a chance to see a broader palette of work. The latest album to come out of this particular scene is from Belgium’s Hiraeth.

Out now on Galacy Records, Bittersweet is an absolute triumph. Although it is too late to submit choices for Louder Than War’s album of the year, this would undoubtedly be my choice. It is well crafted, diverse and the quality never wavers from one song to the next.

Although Liquid Drum & Bass may seem to be a relatively niche sub genre, Hiraeth has racked up an impressive 1.23 million streams on Spotify this year alone, so he’s obviously doing something right.

Although Hiraeth sets up base camp in Drum & Bass, he is not afraid to wander off into different stylings and to bring other influences to the fore. This means that Bittersweet takes us on a journey, as the mood switches throughout the album.

First track, The Truth, sees Hiraeth team up with Alexvnder. Collaborations are another feature of Liquid Drum & Bass, meaning the scene is mutually supportive. The Truth is an atmospheric opener, complete with haunting piano motifs and heavily treated vocals, expertly puling off the trick of sounding both chilled and dancefloor friendly.

Track two, Deep Blue, has a more electronic feel to it, with the kick and snare drums high in the mix. Some saxophone-like sounds lend it a slight jazz feel towards the end, a feature that occurs again later in the album. Dark Heart, this time with Low:r, is darker than previous songs and features some ominous sub bass that demands to be heard over a club sized PA system.

Interlude (Between Old and New) is a more chilled affair that starts out with atmospheric keyboards and piano before echoing voices come in to add texture. Slow and sparse, it is rich, lush and would make the perfect opening track to a DnB mix. Here we start to veer away from the Liquid template, showing us that Hiraeth is not prepared to let himself be limited by genre constrictions.

If We Wait is an uptempo collaboration with TZ and Siege MC, and the track features spoken word MCing along with reverb heavy backing vocals and almost dubstep flourishes. Soft piano chords provide melody and the result is a glorious combination of sounds that deserves to be a huge hit if only it could get the right kind of exposure and radio attention.

Finding You slows the pace down again, a clever mix of unhurried beats and simple repeated vocals that somehow manages to become more than the sum of its parts and works its way under your skin to leave you singing the song long after it has finished.

The album’s title track lulls us into thinking it is another slow track before the drums kick in and take us to more familiar Hiraeth territory. He has a knack of taking a simple, small snippet of vocal and working it into a hook that is as catchy as it is undecipherable. The vocal line here puts me in mind of Cocteau Twins and the way a song can convey emotion without relying on actual words.

Trouble is another Liquid Drum & Bass floor filler, a subtle song that has a deep, deep bass note running underneath the surface. The song manages to feel calming despite its skittering drums and heavy bottom end and, unusually, it features an almost spoken word breakdown but again, the actual content of the echoing voices do not seem to feature actual words. This gives the impression of eavesdropping on a conversation while falling asleep.

Next track Origins has minimal percussion and would not sound out of place on an Ambient compilation. If Ambient Drum & Bass seems like a contradiction in terms, you need to see what can happen in the hands of a master such as Hiraeth.

Our Love takes a jazzier approach, with what sounds like a brass section and some soulful vocals going on. An uplifting DnB classic in waiting, Our Love is perhaps the album’s stand out track, although if you were to ask me tomorrow you may well get a different answer.

Prisoners was released as a single earlier in the year and immediately featured in the Drum & Bass Sessions shows that I used to broadcast on Louder Than War Radio. Recorded with Bert H, it features a vocal that runs through the song with a conventional verse/chorus feel.

Bittersweet finishes on a high with Rock Dub, a faster, percussion driven song, featuring Ragga style vocal fills and making good use of the famous Think Break. Not for the first time, just listening to this makes me yearn to hear it on a dancefloor at a club or festival. This is music that needs to be heard live and to be felt through your whole body.

Although it is unlikely to happen, given the scant attention given to Liquid artists, I can imagine the songs on this album being rapturously received as part of a Glastonbury headline set, the audience swaying and dancing, hands aloft. The album really is that good and deserves to find a huge audience.

In times where electronic acts such as Rudimental, Bicep and Hybrid Minds are able to headline festival stages and even Wembley Arena, I can see no good reason why Hiraeth, along with the likes of Dan Guidance, Alpha Rhythm, Wez Walker and many others, shouldn’t be doing the same. Apart of course from a lack of exposure.

With Bittersweet, Hiraeth has shown that he has the songs, the artistry and the drive to progress to a much wider audience.

Album of the year. No contest.

Buy Bittersweet here

Source: louderthanwar.com