Take 5 With Human Intrusion
Melbourne duo Human Intrusion have just released their second EP, the sonically immersive Fission. Across six tracks, the record fuses elements of shoegaze, ‘80s and ‘90s alternative, goth, and industrial to craft a sound that’s both hauntingly beautiful and brutally powerful. Steeped in scientific themes and analogue aesthetics, the band stay true to their distinctive style, right down to the special limited-edition floppy disk release, available via Bandcamp and at their EP launch at The Grace Darling on October 10. Below, Lewis from the band shares five key influences that helped shape Fission.
Depeche mode – Violator
This will come as no surprise – during the writing process the phrase “what would Depeche Mode do?” was an ongoing mantra to help navigate the creative dead-ends. From the very start, we aimed to create the EP as a complete work, intended to be listened to start-to-finish. For me, Violator is the archetype example of this and whilst there are some timeless individual songs on there, listening to the whole album is a much richer experience.
READ MORE: Emerauld Turns Up the Volume With Defiant New Single ‘Loud Mouth’
The Chameleons – Script of the Bridge
I’m (Lewis) originally from Manchester. It’s where I started playing music and it’s an inevitable part of my own influences – I’m sure it’s apparent. It’s difficult to pick a singular artist, but the lesser-known yet incredibly influential band “The Chameleons” are my long time favourites. The melodic, atmospheric guitar thing I try to emulate is lifted straight from their 80s albums, “Second Skin” from their first record is a fine example, and they’ve just released a new record!
Yamaha RX5
The rhythmic backbone of this collection of songs mostly comes from a 1986 Yamaha RX5 drum machine, sonically seasoned with effects units of the same era. Not only does it sound great, but using physical gear that is severely limited by today’s standard forces you to squeeze the potential from it and become intimately familiar of its quirks, flaws and how far you can push them. It’s also the same machine used on the Sisters of Mercy “Floodland” album, so that’s good enough for me.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
There are a lot of scientific ideas running through the EP, it was an intended theme we had before any of the music was written. Mixing art and science is something we’ve always done and we love popular culture that also has this attitude. Star Trek has a particular way of combining science with humanity, and TNG has a unique charm and 90s nostalgia thrown in for good measure.
Kate Bush – Hounds of Love
Another mindset we had when writing the EP was not confining to expectations of ourselves. As well as some obvious borrowing of sounds (see snare from “Cloudbusting”), we also took the attitude of not limiting ourselves to our own expectations and pushing each other to do better. Rather than take traditional band roles and stick to our familiar instruments, we considered the production and songwriting as a whole concept.
