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The Hundred in the Hands is a band formed of two members from New York City - Eleanore Everdell and Jason Friedman. The two discovered their shared sensibility for early hip hop, French house and disco, ska and dub, post-punk, British mod and girl pop from the 60's through the 80's and decided to form a band. Their first song, the post-punk rave-up "Dressed in Dresden" - was written and recorded in a couple of days, released online, picked up and released as a 45 by a record shop Pure Groove in the U.K. where they were soon playing shows and coming to the attention of Warp Records. Meanwhile, the two retreated to the bunker to write and record. During that time, Friedman and Everdell focused on deciding exactly who they wanted to be. What they discovered and emerged with were 11 startling new tracks and a precise and deliberate sound - described as avant pop.



The band's self-titled debut album ('The Hundred In The Hands' released 20th September 2010 on Warp Records) is a collection of adventurously crafted, perfectly manufactured and deceptively complex pop songs that embrace the duality between the electronic and the organic.



Equal parts mutant disco, 80's pop queen and Yé Yé girl, Eleanore's epic vocals and lavish synths both full and flirty, desperate and demanding belie a naturalism that's intensified and offset by Jason's bass lines, programmed beats and guitars that swerve from angular, full-throttle riffs to vaporous and ephemeral shadows. Jason and Eleanore trade menacing metallic, razor sharp, turns, assembling towering melodies atop pulsing rhythms.



With a brassy carnality, the record veers from Disco dazed, avant-pop ("Young Aren't Young") to teenage angst, boredom and pop heartache ("Pigeons") as Jason's piercing guitar lines zig and zag with Eleanore's soaring harmonies and Siouxsie-esque yelps. A late-night dance party ("Commotion") and Post-R&B dub ("This Day Is Made", "Lovesick (Once Again)") spin into mind-bending mash-ups of skuzzy rock riffs and obliterated beats ("Gold Blood") relieved finally in an austere anti-ballad to failed rebellion ("The Beach"). Elsewhere, glistening, conversational minimal wave ("Killing It") bleeds into dreamy synth-pop ("Dead Ending"), crumbles into restrained punk ("Last City") and bursts in the song that started it all the incisive disco-punk dance-off, "Dressed in Dresden".



Jason and Eleanore bend and blend styles, sounds and eras into something that feels fun.