Blank Dogs - The Fields

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Clinton on Sun 21 Dec, 2008.

When you are as old as me then you start to see things coming round for a second or third time. Its a very good job that this new LP 'The Fields' by Blank Dogs says across the back in huge letters 'Recorded in 2008' because I could have sworn that this was produced from the minds of 5 disturbed raincoat wearing young men from Stalybridge....... in 1981. Brian chuckled with laughter when I suggested that these lot (ok its apparently just one guy) were trying to be Bauhaus but failing. But this is kind of whats great about it. Its Bauhaus gone completely mental. Drum machine (or drums sounding like drum machine) - check. Flanged bass - check. Bernard Sumner type guitar strumming -check. Vocal that makes Ian Curtis sound like Jimmy Somerville - check. Its absolutely shambolically performed but like the Wavves record (which is on the same label Woodsist co-incidentally) there are some pretty good tunes there beneath the murk and at times they brighten up as if their mums have come along and fed them lashings and lashings of jelly and ice cream and they get giddy and start sounding like early My Bloody Valentine, The Cure or The Wake. So all in all an enjoyable romp.

Brand new 7 song 12" Mini-LP. New album due early 09 on In The Red, guess we'll see a mere handful of the vinyl of this... "BlankDogs are actually singular: It's the insanely prolific one-man Brooklyn-based band of Mr. Blank Dog. We don't know too much about the biography of the guy behind the bedroom new-wave pop/punk and he's usually covering his face with masks or bedspreads, but that's fine. The aura of anonymity allows you to focus on the sounds -- and, really, he might be releasing a ton of things, but there's definitely a higher jam to crap ratio. It's like Joy Division vocal lines with the Cure's synth and guitar melodies filtered through ancient submerged keyboards and eroded recording equipment. And that voice? All the feedback in the world can't hide his knack for melody." –stereogum

4...according to caren ball.

this must be about the 15th blank dogs release in the last 2 years and this one is almost tuneful in a poppy way. Still has the distorted vocals and the humming synths but less scary. It also marks at last the vinyl appearance of 'spinning' which has a massive drum sound and great chorus. I can see no reason why this shouldnt be a huge hit. The sleeve is also one of the best of the year. So roll on more blank dogs - double lp on in the red and 2 more 7's in the next couple of months

Rating: 4 out of 5

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