HEXA: Material Interstices – “too dark for the apocalypse itself”

Oscillating between the eerie world of Jamie Stewart’s Xiu Xiu and Lawrence English’s thick, rolling blankets of noise, the pair are reacquainted as HEXA with their latest release, Material Interstices.

Stewart and English are two shadowy acolytes in the experimental music world that have crossed paths prior to Material Interstices, with the pair releasing their 2016 debut LP, Factory Photographs; the soundtrack to David Lynch’s commission for Between Two Worlds.

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Sliced into eight compositions, Material Interstices focuses on a contaminated landscape beyond the dread of a post-COVID world (English Flesh), enveloped by ghoulish dread-scapes that even sound too dark for the apocalypse itself.

Inspired by English’s childhood dreams and wavering sleep patterns, Material Interstices is a deep dream-state with thick layers of fog, drifting through grimy tunnels that lead to the end of the earth.

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If you imagine something more sinister than Labradford’s darkest sound explorations during Prazision LP (Hot Grave, How to Tell Time With Jesus, Leather Lake) then inevitably you will arrive at HEXA’s latest creation. A concern designed for late nights in complete solitude.

In a year where experimental music has flourished (perhaps like no other), we can add HEXA’s Material Interstices to the pile. It’s a work unique to Stewart and English’s respective bodies of work and one that sits comfortably within their challenging sound worlds.

Material Interstices is out tomorrow via Room40. Purchase from Bandcamp.