Hidden Number

Hidden Number was a Seattle avant-metal/experimental-rock quartet whose 2011 album Human_Error was reviewed as fusing surf-rock guitar tone and theremin soloing with 'sputtering techno' glitch textures and Middle Eastern-tinged passages inside complex, prog-leaning song structures. Tagged nowave/post-punk/experimental on Bandcamp, they sit closer to the noisy art-rock end of avant-metal than to death/black extremity.

SCORE PROFILE

JazzyBalkanHardcoreSurfBarbershopDeathBlackTechnicalGlitchTheatricalFolkDoomDroneShoegazeAmbient8-bit
Jazzy0
Balkan2
Hardcore3
Surf5
Barbershop0
Death0
Black0
Technical5
Glitch3
Theatrical0
Folk0
Doom0
Drone0
Shoegaze0
Ambient2
8-bit0

Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.

WHY THOSE SCORES

  • Balkan 2Review mentions 'Middle Eastern meditational flourishes' — adjacent to but not squarely Balkan/Eastern-European; scored low (non-counting) rather than folded into folk/balkan without stronger confirmation.
  • Hardcore 3Post-punk/nowave tagging and described chaotic genre-hopping on prior releases suggest punk-adjacent energy; kept moderate since not the dominant descriptor.
  • Surf 5Bandcamp self-tags the album 'surf' and the REDEFINE magazine review explicitly credits 'surf rock goodness' plus theremin soloing, matching the spy-film/tremolo-picking definition of the axis.
  • Technical 5REDEFINE review calls out 'über complex instrumentation' and 'eerie yet surprisingly melodic-epic song structures'; Bandcamp tags include avant metal/experimental/nowave/post-punk.
  • Glitch 3REDEFINE review describes 'sputtering techno assaults' woven through the record — stutter-edited electronic bursts consistent with the glitch axis, not merely a genre tag.

MEMBERS

  • Dean Swansonguitar, keyboard, vocals
  • Joe Stuhffbass
  • Kai Strandskovdrums
  • Josh Andersonguitar, keyboards

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