An apt portrayal of limbo, that sunless land between heaven and hell. The nether-region inhabited by those no longer bouncing betwixt, rather buried between, love and loneliness, pain and pleasure, life and death, where time’s pendulum has ceased movement, laid still upright and lifeless, awaiting a gesture of strength as an awakening.
“Feels like no angels
Follow where I tread
Made to make a home, but I’m
Lost in wilderness instead“
The world of “Hounds” is one “about running from depression and the inevitability of loneliness,” states Puma Blue’s singer/songwriter Jacob Allen, known for his languid, deeply atmospheric sound blending indie rock, alternative, R&B, and trip-hop influences. [allmusic] The track so heartfelt, it was realized in a single take.
“After the detachment of the last couple of years, it became apparent to me that the thing I love most […] is playing live with my closest friends. So I took them this demo I’d written around a bass line, and after jamming through it a couple of times we recorded it live together,” shared Allen, further remarking, “The irony is not lost on me given this is a song about loneliness, that it was a really poignant time of togetherness and I think you can hear it in the playing,“
.
Of the video directed by filmmaker Jak Payne, “[We] were inspired by Jean Cocteau’s ‘Testament Of Orpheus’ and Andrei Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’, and so we set the video inside a kind of barren dream world. There’s hidden meaning and symbols which are both personal to me and up for the individual’s interpretation as I traverse the landscape of my own subconscious.“, confided Allen.
“Awake in this hell space
I can barely hold my tongue
Try for my life to be someone
Who can never come undone“
While the lyrics lament an unfortunate draught of happiness, they by no means imply the protagonist is not of fleet-footed wanderlust anxious of revival. Hounding of himself, the dream-like imagery finds him blindfolded yet in search of that which will reanimate the mechanistic tick-tock of the deadened clock. An applied momentum tantamount to a returned vitality. An ever-distant sunny ray of hope.
“And I will find
Myself alone again
And all my fears
Become the dreams of yester-when“
~
Puma Blue’s
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I honestly have never really used WordPress As platform to expose myself however I have been a subscriber and avid reader of your blogs for a long time. Although l was once active on Social Media it was never to promote myself instead it was merely used to geek out with other fans and belong to their little clubs…Ministry, TKK, DIJ, Blood Axis, Nick Cave, Foetus…blah, blah, blah. You get the idea…
I never feel comfortable promoting myself but I wanted to extend an olive branch to someone with common interests perhaps get some feedback.
I linked my first album “VOW OF SILENCE” at the bottom.
Sincerely,
Stephen Handlon
https://open.spotify.com/album/5xXbpi9TL06AvpI4G3CRui?si=4qwF6W4hSn-y-BMuEctdsQ
Cutoff-man.com
Thank you for your kind words; I too appreciate the feedback either good or bad. It does appear we are souls of a feather with like influences. In regards to your music, while I don’t relish the idea of being a critic (someone who cannot, who likes to criticize those that try), I really enjoyed your works. VOW OF SILENCE is my favorite (menacingly pensive diatribe throughout), though I found tracks I like in most all of your releases. In particular, “Zero Tolerance” (perhaps oddly reminds me of This Mortal Coil), your “Cut Up Version” of “East End” (edgy), “Empty Vessel” (honorable mention), and the downward trajectory of “Homemade Christmas Card”, but your pièce de résistance (IMNSHO) for sheer vile wickedness has to be “The Drop Off” (wow). Keep going, you obviously have talent. BTW, I added “East End – CUT” to my B1URR3D R3A1ITY playlist. I would like to recommend The Golden Palominos 1996 album “Dead Inside” (https://tinyurl.com/32y558s4) to you, with reservations on the first track — the whole album is dark but that opening track you will never entirely shake. Peace brother. 💀
Yes, we’re merely molting. I thank you for your kind words and for even taking the time to listen to it. I honestly don’t try to bother anyone and be that “guy”. The random friend that will occasionally hit you up via text so you can watch their video or whatever shitty band they are into at that particular moment. I think we’ve met on some FB music group some time ago (Ministry Nation) Yet, I could be mistaken and probably am. I didn’t know my comment would’ve been displayed on your page and I am a little embarrassed to admit not knowing that. Keep up the good work…If you ever come to Philadelphia to see a gig or are in the area. Feel free to let me know…
My sincerest thanks.
Lol, the rare occasions when someone asks me this, I am like, “Oh no, well, at least better check it out …” And then you sucked me in with that gritty album, I can remove our comments if you like, but I would rather leave them here as an advertisement for your music if you don’t mind.
I don’t mind at all, I really appreciate your consideration though.
Good Call on “Mortal Coil” too btw.
In general I’m a pretty “couldn’t care less” kind of person. Unrelated story some guy at the post office just wished me a “Happy President’s Day…”
So My follow up question…
”Is there a sale on postage?”
There was not
This Mortal Coil*
Love their Big Star covers “Kangaroo and Holocaust” too. Alex Chilton and Alan Vega are pretty under appreciated…”Cubist Blues” is an example of this
Their three albums are almost entirely made up of little-known covers. This Mortal Coil being the supergroup assembled by Ivo Watts-Russell, the main man at record label 4AD at its inception. Thusly, the music is done by artists hand-picked mostly from the 4AD label. All three albums (It’ll End In Tears, Filigree & Shadow, Blood) are favorites, though Filigree holds a special place in my blackened heart for outstanding beauty, if a bit of enjoyable pretension.
Bastard. All pop and no fizz. Plus he’s early too.
Wow, such a haunting, breathtakingly beautiful song, and the video’s stunning too.
Completely agree, Jeff! That sax solo is out of this world and I love the cacophony at the end too. His vocals remind me of Jeff Buckley, one of his admitted heroes. 💀
My thoughts…
From the video, I see the singer/songwriter’s soul as a desolate wasteland in which he stumbles around in the dark. A dismal dreamscape—except for the ocean. In that, I infer a tiny glimmer of hope. At first, I thought he was just going to keep waking out until he disappeared, but no, he stops and turns around. Perhaps to try again? Maybe it’s just me, but I find the ocean a comforting place. The singer’s delivery embodies hopelessness, an acceptance that fate will never deal him a winning hand. The lyrics, though, that’s where the true beauty lies…though he struggles to be strong, to find and stay in a place he belongs, it’s not to be. And he knows it.
I like your analysis. The ocean overwhelms me with its enormity, but I’ve spent the majority of my life around bays and inlets and only seen the ocean a handful of times (the first time was actually a dark and stormy night, which probably didn’t help). I got that same impression at the end of the video too, nary a glimmer of hope. 💀🖤
My favorite place to be is on the Gulf of Mexico. It’s calmer than the east and west coast, and the water’s warmer. I live far inland, but have vacationed on the Gulf on multiple occasions, but not for a few years now. I think that’s where I want my ashes to be scattered.
‘’Nary a glimmer of hope…” that pretty well sums up the video, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Why, oh why, do some of us love wallowing in misery?
I’ve been asking myself that question my entire life, lol. 😂🖤
Me too, Rann. 😊🖤