HRMAG were formed in the early 2000s by old School friends while attending Canterbury college with a shared love of Captain Beefheart, Black Sabbath, and Soft Machine. Early demos were recorded at Canterbury college and HRMAG began playing live around 2005, continuing to do so frequently up until hiatus in 2020. They released their self-titled EP in 2006 and went onto record a number of tapes and split vinyl releases over the next few years. Many of these recordings were eventually picked up and compiled in 2010’s ‘Udders’ by Australin label Lexicon Devil.

Recording in the studio next door to Hugh Hopper around this time, a session was arranged and the results ultimately released as Goat Hopper by Voiceprint in 2013, though the project was never fully realized due to Hugh's untimely passing.

Several joint UK tours and a further split release with Upsilon Acrux followed, where the seeds were sown to one day collaborate with Patrick - the results of which are on this record.

HRMAG isn’t ‘math rock’ or a display of virtuosity and rarely leans on those familiar tropes. Their music shifts between tightly wound composition and free flowing rhythmic improvisation, likely in the same song, building and collapsing in calamitous cycles, sometimes tight, sometimes loose. They like to thrive on this tension between rigid forms and free exploration, usually favouring atonal riffing over melody. Often, parts aren’t explicitly notated, rather rhythmic frameworks shaped by repetition. It’s playful, absurd, and not taking itself too seriously.

This record moves slightly away from the band’s previous bludgeoning breakneck jazz-punk, and incorporates more direct song structures, opening space for improvisation and gives Patrick’s sax contributions a central, integrated role.

Jonny Shoults - Drums
Michael Pike - Bass, Piano (7)
Patrick Shiroishi – Sax (1,2,3 & 5)
Ryan Simpson - Guitars

Horns & Hooves press release