Somewhere close to Manchester?s ever changing city centre, as the sun fades and peeks through the newest glass facade, you?ll find Shaking Hand. One part in shadow, the other basking in prisms of light as they sketch out their own sonic landscapes in the dusty redbrick mill they call home. One that is just about clinging on from the encroaching developments that surround them.
Against this back-drop where buildings are constantly torn down & built back again, the three piece craft away. Pulling from early post-rock, and 90s US alternative rock, crafting their own brand of Northwest-emo. Assembling something new, yet nostalgic. Looking ahead towards the transforming horizon. Shaking Hand?s music is built on tension and release ? quiets that stretch, louds that overwhelm. Repetition that feels both hypnotic and destabilising. "The best ideas are when it feels like it?s just about to fall apart and we?re only just holding on,? says Freddie.
The band?s musical DNA runs through experimental guitar outfits like Women, Slint, Sonic Youth, Pavement, and Ulrika Spacek, balanced with the melodic sensibility of Big Thief and the dynamic intimacy of Yo La Tengo. Their compositions push against structure: sudden jolts of tempo, polyrhythms that almost fall apart, and riffs that unravel into something fragile or ecstatic. Yet, as Ellis notes, there?s an underlying warmth too: "Like walking through an empty city late at night but catching flickers of life in the buildings you pass.? (Text: Presseinfo)
