Hoomzeh is one of the latest projects on our radar that really knows how to tastefully straddle the pesky, non-linear boundaries of math rock and prog, and today we’re extremely stoked to present “Promise,” their latest single.
The single itself is an etheric, driving melodic jam, and there’s no denying it – however, what stands out to us first and foremost is it’s sense of resolve. We hesitate to use a word as nebulous as maturity to describe it, but there is definitely an emotional focus here that guides each moment of the song.
So many bands with math rock and prog tags come across as music by musicians, for musicians – which is excellent for people like us. Of course, we’re speaking a little casually here. But if your creativity isn’t based in music, yet you still like to use it to enhance other activities in your life, those arpeggiated fusion licks and weirdo chord structures might not have the same appeal.
So when song like “Promise” come along, it’s easy to take note of it. Check it out below.
We thought it was worth mentioning that the premise of “Promise” was the tribute to the childhood dream of releasing original, introspective music and art – that’s honestly quite cool, in our book. Also, the artwork by Moma drives the theme home as well, it’s not like a musician’s life is all smooth sailing!
That being said, hearing “Promise” for the first time way like hearing Plini or Kaguu for the first time, mainly in the way Hoomzeh marries production and guitar trickery with lofty piano licks and chop-happy drums. We even got a whiff of Joel Turcotte on the track before realizing he was indeed on it, as well as Cameron Carbone of Altermind and Fran Garcia of Rest Ashore.
Even with the stacked credits, the song still comes across as a singular concept and rolls through several different dynamics and themes throughout its four minute runtime. Given that this is only the second single from Hoomzeh, and that the other one “Floof” is pretty sick as well, we’ll definitely keep you posted on whatever comes next.
According to the press release, Hoomzeh plans to release an additional single in summer of 2023 and an upcoming EP in late 2023 – early 2024, and looks forward to continued collaboration with other musicians in the prog/math-rock/instrumental music scene. Hit him up! Check out more from Hoomzeh here, and if you love us, buy us a coffee sometime here. Thanks for reading!