HUMANITIES

Toronto art-damaged hardcore. Exploring some of the strange terrain in this world of techno-alienation, HUMANITIES' debut EP focuses on our all too familiar, yet strange relationships with things like social media and communicative labour, and our dependence on various technologies and institutions in sharing our experiences with others in the world. The imagery and themes are related to our collective efforts — and failures — at communication and community. It opens with the driving post-hardcore sound of “Century of the Selfie,” a bitter meditation on the false promises of social media and connectivity, and then moves through the claustrophobia of “Come Outside” formed from varying strands of punk and hardcore. The dystopic visions of work and leisure in “Belly Full of Fear” combine with noisy, dense guitars that shine with a dissonant melody. The EP concludes with the somewhat more optimistic, yet crushing dirge rock of “Your Dreams are My Dreams,” a song that finds a certain communicative and creative possibility in that apparently most solitary, and unproductive, activity: dreaming. Through dreams we find a shared energy that runs deeply into the individual, seeping into it and pushing out beyond it, into others and to the world. Exploring some of the strange terrain in this world of techno-alienation, their debut EP focuses on our all too familiar, yet strange relationships with things like social media and communicative labour, and our dependence on various technologies and institutions in sharing our experiences with others in the world. The imagery and themes are related to our collective efforts — and failures — at communication and community. It opens with the driving post-hardcore sound of “Century of the Selfie,” a bitter meditation on the false promises of social media and connectivity, and then moves through the claustrophobia of “Come Outside” formed from varying strands of punk and hardcore. The dystopic visions of work and leisure in “Belly Full of Fear” combine with noisy, dense guitars that shine with a dissonant melody. The EP concludes with the somewhat more optimistic, yet crushing dirge rock of “Your Dreams are My Dreams,” a song that finds a certain communicative and creative possibility in that apparently most solitary, and unproductive, activity: dreaming. Through dreams we find a shared energy that runs deeply into the individual, seeping into it and pushing out beyond it, into others and to the world.