Hysterical Injury

"...accelerated noise rock with a voice as sweet as sugar...demonic distortion crossing unlikely paths with angelic vocals... with each repeated listen, the songs etch their way into your brain" - Artrocker

"...came to my attention through a free download of a track from their forthcoming debut which you can grab yourself a copy of below [http://bit.ly/himaths], do that because it's quite superb.

If "Maths" is any indication of what to expect from the album 'Dead Wolf Situation' (set for release on 6th February next year) then I'm preparing to be blown away by the now Bristol/Bath based duo. "Maths" is an uncompromising concoction of super charged energy, driven by relentless drum thumps and noisy, distorted bass. It really is just drum and bass from two people making all that beautiful racket, Annie's intoxicating vocal is melodious and equally powerful. A quite super track indeed." - Just Music That I Like

Ever since we put forward Hysterical Injury for the Emerging Talent Stage for last year's Glastonbury, we've told anyone that will listen just how great they are. At the back end of last year that even included Tom Robinson, who played the band on his BBC 6Music show as we told him he had to (as did Tiffany from Drunken Werewolf). 2012 see's the band release their debut LP 'Dead Wolf Situation', and we can tell you now, its brilliant! - Music Liberation

"...we are quite literally addicted to this track.

Raucous and beautiful, Hysterical Injury’s stunning track ‘Maths‘ is our Track of the Week. With definite influence from The Smiths combined with ferocious energy this really is a track that eclipses any sense of boredom and lets anarchy wash all over you." - Glasgow Podcart

"...By the time Dead Wolf Situation’s highlight ‘Vex’ comes into play, those previously unaware of Hysterical Injury will quite literally be kicking themselves. The track shows a sordid and epileptic devotion to deadpan vocals and roaming bass, the likes of which haven’t been heard since Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf. Elsewhere Sonic Youth and Deerhoof exercise their massive influence over the band, without turning Dead Wolf Situation into just another fangirl/boy pastiche.

Over the past few months Hysterical Injury have achieved enough momentum to push Dead Wolf Situation into the limelight, and with the sheer talent they display on the album it’s a sure bet this will allow them to make it onto a few End of Year lists. Hypnotic, menacing and above all enchanting, it’s a bitter-sweet wake up call for all first-time bands in 2012." - The Line of Best Fit

Tom Robinson's "Now Playing" show on 6 Music asked a range of music bloggers which bands they were looking forward to hearing from in 2012. We were the only band mentioned twice...

"Hysterical Injury – Maths (Drunken Werewolf & Music Liberation)"

Drunken Werewolf - "Their debut album Dead Wolf Situation is due out on February 6th through Crystal Fuzz, with a little bit of help from Strummerville. Freshly partnered up with her brother Tom, Annie Gardiner lets out a shrieking howl of bass met by an earth shattering drill of percussion. Think Blondie mashed with Battles and you’re getting close, but Hysterical Injury are unique in their own right, the best Britain has to offer, and certainly ones to watch within the coming year."

Music Liberation - "Originally from South Wales but now based in the West Country, Hysterical Injury have a clear vibrancy and energy that helps to set them apart from their piers. Annie's soft and delicate vocals are set against some vicarious drums from Tom, while the album features some really gnarly bass guitar that’s clearly turned right up. Hysterical Injury are full of ideas and have a real passion and commitment to express those ideas through their live shows and debut album - 2012 is theirs!" - BBC

"Which artists DESERVE to break through in the coming 12 months?"

We featured alongside other tips from Huw Stephens, Bethan Elfyn, Ruth Barnes and Bobby Friction.

Ruth Barnes' follow up comments on her own blog:

"Yes we know we’ve banged on about this band, along with most of the other new music bloggers out there. Hysterical Injury are just one of those bands who you wish would go stratospheric, they are grungy, DIY and have one helluva front woman in Annie Gardiner, how can they go wrong? With a debut album on the horizon (Dead Wolf Situation/ Crystal Fuzz/ Feb 6th) we’re excited... This noisy Bath-based duo may just make 2012 their own." - BBC

"Bath based band The Hysterical Injury push the boundaries of their influence to reveal refreshing new ground. Recalling a mishmash of bands including Sonic Youth, Huggy Bear and a high pitched Babes In Toyland, the songs Annie Gardiner and Lee Stone write are retrospective of the musicians they love, but their aspiration to sound like nothing and no-one else is clear.

Wordy praise aside, they’ve got guitars! And drums! And they’re using them! Grandparents will call it a confounded racket – I call it an iconic breakthrough..." - God Is in the TV zine

"...headliners The Hysterical Injury smash it tonight. They sound like nothing else ever heard before; no reference points need apply, this brother and sister duo have dragged every one of their influences kicking and screaming in to their very own time and place. This includes personal politics which combine second wave feminism, in terms of re-claiming and celebration – take ‘Rosetta’s Waves’, all about the pre Hendrix black female guitarist, known as Sister Rosetta. Also, though, third-wave feminism, playing with linguistics, and thus the ambigous name which can be taken as a poke at Freud. Something Riot Grrrl always aspired to and succeeded in, to a degree, over a decade ago – and which hasn’t been seen since.

It doesn’t stop there. Twenty years or so ago, girlz began to pick up instruments in bands – as in lots of girlz, rather than just the lucky few – and mostly the bass was the instrument of choice, because it was the easiest to learn, allegedly. Annie takes that concept and drags it – you may join in – kicking and screaming in to the 21st Century, by which I mean she uses the bass guitar as a lead, in unimaginable ways.

“Who needs guitars!?” enthuses an amazed friend of the girls are; a woman who has been in Seventies feminist bands with names like The Vents and Freudian Slips (two names of the many), AND worked with Beth Orton and William Orbit.

Everything counts, right down to the expression Annie makes at any given moment, the position of her bass, how she whips the electric cable connecting her bass to the amp on to the strings in one song only, the way Tom both adds to the melody with his obvious know-how, in terms of technical experience, musical knowledge and understanding his sister, or drives the beast (song, to you) forward with a relentless drum beat. And yes, it really IS just a bass and drums making this wilful and driven noise.

You don’t need to know this stuff to bathe, no actually, shower in The Hysterical Injury, just like being a fan of P. J. Harvey and never having heard Patti Smith doesn’t make you a bad person. ‘Bitch’s Balls’, you’ll get it, head to toe, your body will recognise the feeling. In fact if you try to make sense of the songs you’ll, more often than not, be missing the point. These are really moods or the expression of senses, desires, passions, maybe to come off one word, image or idea. Like a piece of art, you take what you need from it. (In the middle of the thunder drums and floating vocals of ‘Maths’, for example, the topic of mathematics couldn’t have been further from my mind. In fact I was not thinking at all, I was sharing an experience.)

“We are not the White Stripes and we are not even going to make out we’re married,” jokes Annie Gardiner.

We got it Annie. the girls are have good context"

- Ngaire Ruth - The Girls Are

"Yes, Hysterical Injury brandish nothing more than vocal mic, bass and drums and, yes, the noise they make is astonishing. But to conjoin these facts is to faint the praise, the journo equivalent of “Hey, you’re looking really good for your age.” Rather, their noise is astonishing in its own right, such as the Donna Summer disco chorusing atop Neverminding riffology on ‘Vex’, or Kate Bush reliving a Sonic Youth on ‘Bitch’s Balls’. 12 tracks of palpable urgency, of pop as pure as it is brutal – think The Chiffons’ catalogue reworked for steam hammer – and of clear-eyed lyrical righteousness. A debut to be dazzled by."
(Julian Owen) - Venue Magazine (Bristol)

"If you love the noise of Sonic Youth and the power punches of Sleater-Kinney, then you better catch yourself a moment of the Hysterical Injury...

"With a strong female voice that could cause epic mosh pits and a cowbell fervor that pokes its head out between the winding drum rolls, the Hysterical injury proves that all you need to make good music is hard work and a willingness to experiment..." - Venus Zine

"...The sound was completely immersive, at times dreamy and melodic and at others ground-shakingly severe." - Uplift magazine

14th NOV '09: THE HYSTERICAL INJURY – Our Lives Are A Futuristic Nightmare – Comes in a neat handmade cover, we like handmade covers, we like bands who take the time, bands who can be bothered about things like the art, always a good sign... They’re from Bath and this probably is a self-released single that’s already been about for a few months. Whatever it is - demo, self-released single, this is a classic piece of D.I.Y attitude and energy. Feisty band, raw edges, jagged guitar sound, low edge rumbling bass guitar is their weapon of choice, that and some busy forward moving drums alongside a sweet-sounding do not mess voice. They’re a duo, Annie Gardener handles those blistering bass lines and vocals, Lee Stone propels the drums and drives the whole thing. Four busy tracks, for slicing tracks, on your toes, feedback feeding. The cover is a hand made screen-printed thing made by artist Danny Le Guilcher... Raw blistering alt.rock energy, punky drive, forthright vocals – Raincoats, Sonic Youth, Lightning Bolt, That F***ing Tank – raw, menacing, demanding, driving, busy, thundering along like that have other places to be. Four impressive songs/tracks/bites, busy bands, in all senses, we like this – - Organ Magazine

"surprisingly effective...the kind of band that make it worth turning up early to shows..." - TheJoyCollective

"...left us gasping for awestruck breath. This is perfect pop wrapped up in distorted wolf’s clothing..." - Live-Music-Scene.co.uk

"...great barrels of propulsive riffs, skronks of feedback, almost incongruously sweet sounding pop vocals, broiling drum rolls, echoes of Pixies, Mary Weiss, Sonic Youth, Hella, and just the occasional unhinged scream.."

"...THI have become one of our most widely respected acts, beloved in ever increasing circles from local label man Dave Artscare (“the most enthusiastic person we’ve ever met,” marvels Annie) to being interviewed by Tom Robinson on 6Music to being touted as “maybe the Sonic Youth of our generation” by Chicago’s women-in-arts mag, Venus Zine..." - Venue Magazine (Bristol)

"Bath based Hysterical Injury was on first, and was brilliant. Really fresh sounding, a hint of PJ Harvey, quite stripped down (the band has three members, guitar, bass and drums) but with influences from a range of genres, hints of electronica and bass driven sounds, to create an overall effect that lifted it from your average grunge rock affair." - Sian Norris, - RockFeedBack.com

Maybe its just us but we here are thinking that the excellently named the Hysterical Injury are primed for great things, now reduced to a duo - bass / drum and vocals - while some might consider it something of a handicap to lose your guitarist both Bath based (that’ll be Bath the town and not the item for wallowing and washing) Annie and Lee have it seems taken such slight distractions in their stride and battened up the hatches to craft a skin peeling vibrant alchemy of cacophony and detuned angulated oblivion. Obviously informed by the Sonic Youth school of aural disfigurement though like fellow prickly pop travellers the Joy Formidable etched with a mindset displaying the corrosive elements of both the Cranes and Bleach. Still it’s a razor sharp aural assault whatever the preferred reference markers might be, the incessant back beats pummelling away at your head space turning the grey matter to a jelly like substance, the fraying and fractured angular fuzz drills ad-hoc and disruptive needling away with a sublime out of focus disquiet beneath it all the would be a pristine bubblegum pop interior is scarred, maimed and pulled to pieces thread by thread by the fraught surface austerity. ’fad’ stands head and shoulders above all on the set and a formidable set it is, a raging titan of frantic and frenetic despairing disharmony finitely dipped in a gloom tinged warring intro that at 2.30 in accelerates stunningly through the gears into a seismic cacophonic squall. Elsewhere mention should be made of the tenacious mind numbing primal discharged monotone throb of demo ‘pastel face’ - also worth hooking up to by our humble reckoning. http://www.myspace.com/thehystericalinjury

And here’s a video they made which apparently was done by strapping a camera to a van and rallying across Bath - hence the name ’camera drag’ - the sound accompanying it is a looped version of one of their cuts ’silhouette icon’ which after a while ends up sounding not unlike a seriously wired and out of it Battles….well that our thoughts on the matter (and we’re mostly right - right?) - Loosing Today.com

"It's intelligent, and not just lyrically; the anger at the commercial Kate Moss' concept of beauty taken from a less obvious angle, pondering on why we fail to dissmiss the unobtainable and accept ourselves. Also in the imaginative song structure, no dominating guitar but with drums leading the way for the continuous undercurrent provided by the near metronomic descending bass line that pulls the song into deeper focus and builds, along with the vocals transitioning between ethereal and riot, smoothly to give the song a post 1am feel of a night destined to end in post rock, just not for a while yet. As I said, smart band."- Chris Glynn - Drunken Werewolf Magazine