Humm Kill EP – Humm Kill | Review by Dave Franklin

Humm Kill is the sonic product of two Italian art college friends. Actually, it is the sideline project of a famous musician at pains to maintain anonymity. Or, it may result from the creative experiments of a group of Japanese music students. It could be the leaked secret communication between two ostracized Americans making music in secret. Humm Kill is based on reality. It is all a lie. It is all of the above and not at all what you think.

I love that even the small amount of online information that you can find about the band/artist/studio/project seems to be a smokescreen, especially in an age where even the most nobody of nobodies seems hell-bent on putting even their most private thoughts and experiences online for the world to …well, largely ignore. Such a smokescreen allows the interested party plenty of room to make wild speculations and draw unfounded conclusions. But if we stopped fixating on the people who make music, their every move and utterance, and just embraced their product, we might find the world in a better place, culturally speaking. After all, do we need everything explained and handed to us on a plate, and what is life without a bit of mystery?

So, if discussing the person/people/machines/higher presence behind the music is shaky ground, the music itself is anything but, and a current EP, also enigmatically titled Humm Kill, makes for fertile ground for discussion.

I suppose the starting point is that dark, brooding sound that has fueled the outer fringes of rock music, that belligerent, lawless, and brilliant thread that has run through the musical landscape for generations, connecting everything from garage rock to post-punk to college rock to alt-rock to more experimental and progressive forms of music. But if the scuzzy guitars and angular approach might seem familiar, as the recent single, Let’s Start Here, neatly demonstrates, as always, it ain’t what you do; it’s the way that you do it. And the way that Humm Kill does it is to shoot this already snarling sonic beast through with brooding lulls and gnashing sonic highs, shards of industrial intensity, and passages that beg the question, where does music end and noise start? Which is a fascinating question. Noise as art? Discuss….

Clay Street wanders some strange Doorsian territory, spacious, spooky, full of shonky, off-kilter rhythms, but also slightly lullaby-like before revealing itself to be full of spoken word street philosophies, the sound of urban shaman giving advice over tribal grooves and ritualistic sonics, while Slanted Dreams shows that Humm Kill has a more considered side, spacious, intriguing, and able to produce the sort of thing that Lou Reed would have wrestled you to the ground to get his hands on back in the late sixties.

Dimly Lit Alley is full of the required frisson and friction, a grinding and menacing machine-like outpouring of dark energies and even darker intent. Things round off with Brain Dumb Stü, a track that ebbs and flows between a sonic wailing and gnashing of six-string teeth and a sort of hymnal, prayer-like, industrial-age dirge.

This eponymous ep is a wonderful, mercurial, challenging, and complex beast, but rewarding too. It finds the beauty in chaos, the melody in muscular music, the grace and grandeur in the grit and the grind. Music doesn’t always have to be easy to assimilate; in fact, it is better when it isn’t; the rewards and sense of satisfaction are so much greater when such music falls into place, and you finally go, “Ahh, yes, I get it, now.”

I would love to shake the hand of those behind this ep, but of course, I cant, because no one knows who it is!

In an age where a band’s online presence often eclipses their musical output, Humm Kill emerges like a glitch in the algorithm—a nameless, faceless entity that’s more interested in your headphones than your Instagram feed. Their debut release, *Humm Kill EP*, is an exercise in pure, unadulterated slacker rock, unapologetically rejecting the industry’s obsession with image and instead focusing on the raw, gritty core of what they do best: making music that sticks.

Led by the enigmatic frontman known only as “Four”, Humm Kill is a band that’s deliberately shrouded in mystery. Their identities are a closely guarded secret, known only to their manager and legal team. It’s a move that could easily be dismissed as a gimmick if it weren’t for the EP’s genuine, lo-fi charm. Four insists this isn’t just about being elusive—it’s a social experiment designed to see if music can still resonate on its own merits, stripped of the distractions of social media buzz and brand partnerships. 

From the moment the opening track “Let’s Start Here” kicks in, it’s clear that Humm Kill is tapping into something primal. The fuzzy guitars and lackadaisical vocals are steeped in the slacker rock tradition, echoing the disaffected cool of Pavement and the dissonant edge of Sonic Youth. But where those bands were products of their respective coasts, Humm Kill roots themselves firmly in the Midwest, drawing on the region’s understated grit to craft a sound that’s at once nostalgic and refreshingly unvarnished.

Standout tracks like “Cassette Mix Tape” and “Brain Dump Stew” are perfect examples of Humm Kill’s ethos—songs that feel less like meticulously produced singles and more like off-the-cuff jams captured on a dusty four-track. It’s music that embraces imperfection, thriving in the spaces where other bands might seek to smooth out the rough edges.

What makes *Humm Kill EP* so compelling isn’t just its DIY aesthetic or the band’s refusal to play the industry’s game—it’s the authenticity that drips from every note. There’s something undeniably refreshing about a band that’s not trying to sell you anything other than the music itself. 

Whether or not Humm Kill’s anonymity will remain sustainable in a world that demands constant visibility is anyone’s guess. But for now, this EP stands as a testament to the enduring power of music that doesn’t need to be seen to be heard.

Humm Kill isn’t just releasing an EP—they’re making a statement. And in an era of hyper-curated, overproduced everything, that might be exactly what we need.

Rating: 8.0/10

Humm Kill’s debut EP is a refreshing and authentic take on slacker rock that thrives on its lo-fi aesthetic and rebellious anonymity. With standout tracks like “Let’s Start Here” and “Cassette Mix Tape,” the band delivers a raw, unfiltered sound that feels both nostalgic and new. While the concept of remaining anonymous in today’s image-driven music industry is intriguing, it’s the strength of the music itself that makes this EP a success. Humm Kill is a band that wants to be heard, not seen—and with an EP this solid, they deserve to be.

Jillian Mapes covers indie and alternative music with a deep understanding of the scene.