Say 'hello' to Waving Hand

Here's one I've been thinking about writing on for more than a minute. In fact, I first played a selection from the album in question on my radio show on March 5th.

The album in question is an EP called Places from Quebec City band Waving Hand who are a cryptic bunch to say the least. On their Myspace page they list the Band Members as "three guys," their influences are "St-Jean-Baptiste, St-Sauveur, St-Roch," and they play "Reggae / Religious / Electroacoustic" music. From what I've been able to discern, the first statement is true (the group includes Maxime Gamache on drums, Mathieu Gamache (Maxime's brother) on bass, and multi-instrumentalist Guillaume Chiasson), the second is questionable and the last is somewhat off the mark.

Waving Hand do make electroacoustic music, and if their influences are to be believed, then it would stand to reason it's religious music as well, but it is most definitely not reggae. What it IS is a combination of glitchy, atmospheric numbers ("310," "Abandoned Church"), electro-punk that recalls LCD Soundsystem ("Bal Masque") and wonderfully constructed electro-pop.

My favourite selection from Places, "The Man Living On The City Landfill Site" which you can hear on the CBC Radio 3 site is epitome of the electro-pop mentioned above.

You can purchase the Places EP off their blog, and don't forget to check out the Waving Hand Myspace page.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...