If you haven’t already heard Human Impact, you could be forgiven for wondering whether the New York four-piece were soothsayers who’d prophesied humankind’s current struggle with an invisible threat. On “Respirator,” from the group’s new self-titled debut, vocalist and guitarist Chris Spencer (formerly of Unsane) laments, “We’ve made a mistake / Problems that can’t be undone / I see what this will bring / I see, respirator to breathe.” And on “Protestor,” which kicks off with plodding bass and off-kilter keys, Spencer delivers an eerily prescient opening line: “A virus we can’t control.” But this band of noise-rock luminaries—Spencer, bassist Chris Pravdica (Swans, Xiu Xiu), keyboardist Jim Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop), and drummer Phil Puleo (Cop Shoot Cop, Swans)—are so well-versed in dark, apocalyptic, and political themes that it was practically inevitable that some of their lyrics would resonate with our increasingly terrible reality.…
If you haven’t already heard Human Impact, you could be forgiven for wondering whether the New York four-piece were soothsayers who’d prophesied humankind’s current struggle with an invisible threat. On “Respirator,” from the group’s new self-titled debut, vocalist and guitarist Chris Spencer (formerly of Unsane) laments, “We’ve made a mistake / Problems that can’t be undone / I see what this will bring / I see, respirator to breathe.” And on “Protestor,” which kicks off with plodding bass and off-kilter keys, Spencer delivers an eerily prescient opening line: “A virus we can’t control.” But this band of noise-rock luminaries—Spencer, bassist Chris Pravdica (Swans, Xiu Xiu), keyboardist Jim Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop), and drummer Phil Puleo (Cop Shoot Cop, Swans)—are so well-versed in dark, apocalyptic, and political themes that it was practically inevitable that some of their lyrics would resonate with our increasingly terrible reality.…