Second Circle Holland Vinyl & CDs

Review: Back in the depths of the global Coronavirus pandemic, Nick Hoppner and Alex Kassian decided to join forces to record an album, one that would set aside their club credentials and instead focus on their collective love of krautrock, ambient and 'guitar-driven music'. The result is The Big Melt, the duo's first missive as H.A.N.K. Beginning with the immersive, enveloping sound world that is 'Cruise' - a slow-build, effects-laden dreamscape that offers nods to classic Tangerine Dream, shoegaze and 1990s ambient electronica - the album bobs along attractively, with exotic rhythms and intoxicated electronics ('A Useful Fever') sitting side by side with shuffling Balearic instrumentals ('Azul's Garden'), kosmiche epics ('Jag Aar Jag'), sitar-laden wonders ('While My Tar Gently Weeps'), and analogue-rich nods to Neu!, Can and Dunkelziffer ('No Harm').