In the Aisle, Under the Carpet, Beyond Hope

Can something sound hollow? How much does the way something sounds have to do with the way you hear it? Maybe it's not the sound that feels hollow.

'Hope' is not big enough a word to cover all the ideas it's supposed to. Hope can be graceful, slim, false, misleading, even eternal. And we believe in the whole mess because it seems like we have to. What else would we fill ourselves with if not that ethereal carrot - the one that, well might it spring, only ever recedes when we draw close.

The Hungry Ghost of the Buddhist tradition (The upcoming album Hungry Ghost's namesake) is doomed to walk the earth full of desires it cannot sate. It is pulled along by hope - the antecedent for the rage that will burn on the kindling of these longings unfulfilled. Giving up hope might be the best thing it ever did. It might be the best thing all of us ever do.

What else would it take to overcome empty desires? What if we just did things anyway? What if we just took to life without waiting for the false promise of a fulfillment? Sure, we might have to forget about a whole bunch of things that people have told us about the world. Hell, we might even be left with no fucking idea what to do. But if we start, we might almost feel something; we might catch a glimpse of something beyond any of our initial groping ambitions (listen from 2:20 to 2:22). 

So we might stay hollow, with hope as our stopgap, or we might choose instead to yell into the void, to truly empty it and let what come of it come. My guess listening to the snare hits here is that Violent Soho have a message for you: fuck hope, fuck desire, fuck waiting for heaven; live and let yourself be filled.

You can pre-order the album (out through I OH YOU) here. If you're lucky you might still be able to grab a ticket to one of the preview shows (14-16 August - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) where you too can shout along with the chorus.