I wake up this morning hungover, with a heavy head and shaky hands. I wake up having inflicted this upon myself. I’m currently in the process of beginning a year of postgraduate study at the University of East Anglia, and I’ve been doing my bit to go out and get involved – to meet people and socialise. When I socialise, I tend to do so with drink; it helps me relax and acts as a social lubricant. I understand that I’m nicer to know after a pint or four. So I went out last night and drank, and now I pay the price for trying to make a good first impression.

Released: 2016                           Label: Big Scary Monsters
Variant: 1st press /500              Purchased from: Big Scary Monsters

I lament the sorry state of my morning because I have to do something about it. I don’t drink coffee, so that’s out of the window. I’m too lazy to go out for a run and swear away the demons I drank. I’ve taken a shower but it hasn’t done much for me. So I turn to music, more specifically, I turn to Yndi Halda and post-rock. The genre has always had healing properties, be it in terms of mood, mindset or headspace. I turn to Under Summer and know that if I play it loud enough my recovery, and therefore my return to normality, shall be a quickened process. I’m hoping so anyway. It’s a method which has worked plenty in the past. Perhaps it has something to do with the meditative quality of ambient post-rock. Perhaps the positive emotions the record sparks begin to eclipse the negative emotions stemming from the hangover. Either way, I’ll feel better. The ache of the morning will fade to warm reality returning. Gradually I’ll begin to feel like I can go about my day, putting the night behind me and feeling ready, if not entirely healed. The true healing shall come in the form of a good lunch. I’m thinking pasta at present.

I’m thinking about Yndi Halda’s second LP first though, which is far more than just a record to help the hangover. It’s a sublime dose of sprawling post-rock, with four tracks clocking in at a collective fifty-eight minutes. It’s a record which unfurls gloriously, slow starts building to epic instrumental zeniths and then returning to a steady ebb of wonder. It’s a beautiful sonic construction, a dazzling plethora of warm melodies and goosebump-sparking crescendos. It gets the neurons firing, wakes me up, and in doing so it encourages a newfound reverence for being. Under Summer works wonders for my mindset, a rewarding listen which resonates long after it has finished. Even in writing about it, I feel better.