Haushinka are a three piece punk rock band from Cumbria who formed in September 2017. The band, Dave Wood on guitar and vocals, Becca Lettice on bass and Tom Bakes on drums, released a new EP in February titled Shelter. It caught my attention thanks to the awesome artwork featuring a bear outside of a bright pink house – I just had to check it out and really enjoyed what I heard.
The release begins with the song Up The Ante. This does a marvellous job of introducing us to Haushinka's sound. What we have here is an indie/power pop punk track that has me thinking of a modern era Buzzcocks. It starts out with some jangly guitars before moving towards a punchy style that will have you tapping your feet and nodding your head whilst the lyrics find a way to worm into your mind. Up next is the just over a minute long Buildings Were Burning. Picking up the tempo gives the song an infectious energy that hooked me immediately. It seems as if there is no wasted second and the band blast through the song. There's definitely an approach of "if it's not needed then we won't do it" in the songwriting that I really liked. Even the "whoa-ohs" at the end of the song feel completely necessary. The opening of the third song, Hibernate, does this wonderful thing of building around Lettice's powerful bassline. I feels as if the bassline is the trunk of the tree and the guitar and, to a lesser extent, the drums are the branches growing out in their own way. After the infectious energy of the previous song, this track slows things down a bit and with the verse in particular it feels a bit moody. It picks up in the chorus though and will no doubt have you singing along.
The fourth track is titled Sheikah Slate, starting out with a simple beat from Bakes' drums before we move into what I think is the more indie influenced side of Haushinka's sound. This being a longer track, we really get to hear the musical skills of all three members of the band, including a nice solo from Woods. On my first listen of Shelter the fifth track, Plagiarismo, was the standout. This is pure power pop that put quite a smile on my face. It's another catchy track that will quickly find a home in your brain. I particularly enjoyed the ironic line of "I keep forgetting how the chorus goes" at the beginning of the chorus. The track is about borrowing parts from other songs to write your own and owning up to it. Musically it's a chugga which really helps keep the song feeling light and allows you to really focus on the lyrics. The penultimate song is named Top Hanking. The riff at the beginning of the song gives it an immediate energy that welcomes you along the ride. I expected this to be high energy throughout but it actually chugs along, mostly allowing Woods vocals to be the star of the show. I really liked his vocal throughout Shelter, it's different to a lot of styles that I usually listen to but works so well on these songs. As the track nears its ending the tempo begins to pick up with Woods' vocals getting faster and faster before the song is done – but not before it is wonderfully bookended by that opening guitar riff. The final song on Shelter is Mind. When I first listened to Mind I was quickly reminded of Placebo with Woods displaying more of an angsty and, dare I say it, whiny vocal. It gives this final song a fresh sound and shows that Haushinka are more than happy to play around and not let things stagnate. Mind has a huge sound and was a great choice to finish the EP.
Haushinka feel like they could be the hot new thing in the indie punk scene. Strong, catchy tunes you'll be humming for days and a great freshness that makes them stand out from the pack.
Stream and download Shelter here: https://haushinkaband.bandcamp.com/
Like Haushinka here: https://www.facebook.com/HaushinkaUK/
This review was written by Colin Clark.
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