Blank Realm - Go Easy

  by Andrew Carver

published: 10 / 3 / 2013

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Brisbane quartet Blank Realm have made a name for themselves with their melange of paranoid post-punk and fizzy melodies. On their latest effort, they’ve injected a bit more pop, but kept a good dose of buzz on hand to please folks familiar with their 'Not Not Fun' albums and other early work. Bits of the genetic code of blurt punks the Germs and Flipper show up in ‘Acting Strange’, the intro to ‘Go Easy’, as singer Sarah Spencer (one of three siblings in the band, along with brothers Daniel and Luke) yelps, “Guess I’ve been acting kind of strange!’ over the sort of warped and noisy post-punk favoured by such Australian exports as HTRK and Eddy Current Suppression Ring. The band has also drawn comparisons to American freakout experts Royal Trux, and there is a bit of Neil Michael Hagerty’s singing in ‘Cleaning Up My Mess’. The druggy aura and drawling vocals throughout the album definitely feel similar. The distorted, piercing guitar solo parts, however, in ‘Cleaning’ stay away from the trademark harmolodics, and you won’t find the Spanish-influenced percussion from Royal Trux’s later efforts. Instead, the guitars sound more like cousins to New York’s lo-fi school (a la Crystal Stilts and Frankie Rose) thanks to the group’s tight grip on melodic essentials. The intro to ‘Growing Inside’ cuts down on the fuzz for some more lo-fi jangle, spidery guitarwork before laying out a burst of ultra-distorted guitar racket; There’s more female yelp and guitar skronk on ‘The Crackle Pt. 1’ that might put some in mind of Sonic Youth’s more scabrous efforts. ‘Go Easy’ does a great job of walking the fine line between melody and chaos, and definitely belongs in the hands of those who like it that way.

Track Listing:-

1 Acting Strange
2 Cleaning Up My Mess
3 Working On Love
4 Growing Inside
5 The Crackle Pt. 1
6 The Crackle Pt. 2
7 Pendulum Swing
8 Go Easy

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/blankrealmband
https://twitter.com/blank_realm

Label Links:-

https://twitter.com/firerecordings
https://www.facebook.com/Firerecords
http://www.firerecords.com/
https://firerecords.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/fire_records/
https://www.youtube.com/user/FirerecordsUK

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