Hide and Shine
On their sophomore album The Red Core, Kingston-based genre-benders Hide and Shine don’t so much write songs as summon them from the ether. Out today, the 14-track odyssey is a thunderous, poetic reckoning with personal transformation, spiritual awakening, and the thin boundary between dimensions—a record that sounds like it was written in a fever dream and produced with a scalpel.
Calling themselves “Art Death Indie Post-Punk Country Rock Alternative” with a wink, Hide and Shine aren’t just genre-defying—they’re gravity-defying. Imagine the cathartic crunch of The Replacements clashing with the mysticism of Radiohead, Dinosaur Jr.’s melodic fuzz, and a layer of outlaw country thrown in for good measure. But beneath the swirling noise lies something deeper: a band reaching across time, space, and consciousness for meaning.
Frontman Chris Kelly describes the album as the product of a “psychic download”—not metaphorically, but quite literally. In 2022, he received 50 song ideas “out of nowhere.” From there, a chance dinner with drummer Michael Chambers (orchestrated by their wives) turned into a creative partnership neither expected. Chambers began recording drum parts to every demo, and soon, what started as a possible side project turned into a full-blown cosmic mission.
“Songs don’t come from people,” Kelly says. “They come through people.”
That spiritual humility is baked into The Red Core. This isn’t just music—it’s a broadcast from the unconscious, encoded in distortion and melody. Producer Matt Wallace (Faith No More, The Replacements) brings a dynamic precision to the record’s intensity, capturing the paradox of Hide and Shine’s sound: muscular and brutal, but never without grace or vulnerability.
Lead single “Metamorphosis” exemplifies the band’s shape-shifting aesthetic—a sludgy, melodic dirge that opens like a prayer and ends in exorcism. “Hemorrhage and Heal” follows it with a more urgent pulse, like the musical equivalent of cauterizing an old wound while dancing around the flame. Both songs drip with esoteric references—lucid dreams, alchemical symbols, UFO theology—but never feel overwrought or inaccessible. The band’s mysticism is filtered through a punk lens: urgent, raw, and unpretentious.
Kelly’s lyrics are freighted with spiritual symbolism but grounded in the ache of human experience. “The Red Core” isn’t interested in politics as we know them; it’s more invested in the soul’s politics—the lifelong war between repression and revelation. And yet, even in their most cryptic lines, there’s an anchoring empathy, a desire to reconnect listeners with the deeper frequencies of being.
After their Steve Albini-produced debut Soft Machines (June 2024), Hide and Shine could have easily repeated themselves. But instead, The Red Core refines the band’s aesthetic with sharper tools and deeper vision. With new bassist David Andersen—described by the band as an “analog sorcerer”—joining the fold in late 2024, the trio found a clarity and cohesion that feels both hard-earned and otherworldly.
Much like their hometown of Kingston, NY—a former state capital turned creative outpost—the band stands at a strange crossroads of tradition and experimentation. They’ve got a foot in classic American rock lineage, but the other foot’s dancing in the void.
With a handful of intimate shows lined up—beginning with a record release party at Night Swim in Kingston and followed by a July 13th show at Main Drag Music in Brooklyn—Hide and Shine are bringing their transmissions to those willing to tune in. There’s even talk of a monthly “post-punk art/food/cocktail ritual” series, turning shows into full-sensory experiences.
Ultimately, The Red Core isn’t meant to be dissected. It’s meant to be felt—a visceral, poetic document of awakening, delivered by a band who don’t claim to own the music, only to carry it.
As Wallace puts it, “If there is a goddess of music, I hope she blesses and lifts this album to the highest levels possible. The entire world should have the opportunity to be moved by Hide and Shine.”
That might sound like hyperbole—until you hear the record.
The Red Core is out now.
For tour dates, merch, and more: hideandshine.com.
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