4 ...according to our Clinton on 21 December 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.
Love this record? Hate it? Tell us.
What their label says...
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
