There are bands who sit down with a guitar, a notebook and a vague idea of what they want to write about. And there are bands who carefully construct songs around a concept, a lyric, a riff or a particularly good cup of coffee. And then there is Hide and Shine, the Kingston, NY indie rock outfit whose songwriting process apparently begins somewhere considerably further outside the building.

The band’s third album, 9 Seconds Before Revolution, released August 26, is the latest product of a creative process that sounds less like conventional songwriting and more like receiving transmissions from somewhere you probably shouldn’t have a phone number for.

It began in 2020, when Chris Kelly, the band’s NYC indie-rock mainstay, experienced what he describes as a “psychic download” of around 50 songs. Rather than questioning the sanity of the universe, Kelly recorded rough sketches and took them to drummer and producer Michael Chambers. The material eventually became Soft Machines, the band’s debut double album, with the late Steve Albini helping shape the recordings. If that sounds like an unusual way to start a band, Hide and Shine clearly saw no reason to become more conventional with age.

For 9 Seconds Before Revolution, another batch of songs arrived. 19 of them, apparently over the course of just a few weeks. The band then did what any responsible recipient of cosmic musical information would do: they cut the number down to nine.

There is something wonderfully strange about the whole process, particularly because the finished music doesn’t sound like the work of a band desperately trying to be strange. In fact, that is one of Hide and Shine’s most compelling qualities. The songs can feel oddly familiar as they draw on post-punk, grunge, classic rock, metal, country and psychedelic darkness. There is plenty to here to hear:

“Cascade” opens the album with a ragged melodic confidence that immediately establishes the band’s ability to occupy several musical worlds simultaneously. Melody and mess co-exists here, while the heavier passages carry some of the explosive physicality associated with Dinosaur Jr. Elsewhere, the darker, more introspective moments hint at Radiohead without ever becoming a pastiche of them. That last point matters. Hide and Shine aren’t particularly interested in sounding like their influences. They seem more interested in what happens when those influences collide.

“Chopper” is darker and more abrasive, yet somehow retains the kind of addictive quality that makes a genuinely good rock song difficult to leave alone. “Denouement” piles on density and momentum, and “All We Are Is Nothing But A Weekend” has the slightly dangerous feeling of a song that might cause trouble if played loudly enough in the right room.

But perhaps the most interesting thing about Hide and Shine is what happens underneath all that noise. Their lyrics inhabit a distinctly surreal and spiritual universe, touching on inter-dimensional consciousness, alchemy, virtual reality and the peculiar business of being human. Yet this isn’t spirituality presented with incense burning in the background and a serious expression on its face. There is curiosity here, experimentation and a willingness to follow an idea wherever it leads.

That is partly because Kelly doesn’t begin with lyrics at all. The band records the music first, with words filling the vocal spaces. Only once the track is developed does Kelly listen back and write down the words that emerge. This approach makes the songs feel more like discoveries each of their own.

The title itself arrived in much the same way. Kelly woke from a dream with the words “Seconds Before Revolution” in his head and wrote them down. The number nine was eventually added, and suddenly the phrase seemed to fit the atmosphere of an album being made in 2026: anxious, uncertain and aware that something is happening even if nobody quite knows what it is.

But 9 Seconds Before Revolution isn’t ultimately a bleak record. For all its darker textures and apocalyptic undertones, there is a surprisingly warm centre to it. Beneath the noise is an affection for people, a sense of social empathy and an almost stubborn belief that curiosity and connection still matter. The album acknowledges the strange times we are living through without surrendering completely to them.

And perhaps that is the real revolution here. Not anger for the sake of anger. Not darkness for its own sake. Just a willingness to follow an idea into unfamiliar territory and see what comes back. And if the songs really are arriving from somewhere beyond the ordinary songwriting process, Hide and Shine have at least demonstrated admirable editorial patience.

Keep up with everything Hide & Shine on their Website

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