There's a sweet spot in reworking a grunge-influenced sound in a successful way. The echo's of that scene stay relevant when combined with experimental noise in a nod to the pop construction and the dreaded apocalyptic future. Being able to straddle both of those worlds is where this single from Psychic Blood gets interesting. A handwritten note says they just came from touring with Nu Sensae, another important clue in locating the blown out noise wrestled into recognizable melody sound they achieve.
A-Side "Drrrty" counts off to a wall of dense feedback of spazz strum noise literally setting that noise bar right up the poles with a high pitch ‘eeeee’ distortion from a duo of guitars. Thick chord melody then breaks out of this solid tone and echo’s that thundery northwestern chunk sound. From murky logging camps to deserted rocky beaches. A different evolution of Norwegian metal, a similar condensed scene, a permutation that ended in a similar but different place. Psychic Blood and Nu Sensae are carrying on some of the things that These Are Powers or Health were doing from their beginnings. A sound continued through hardcore punk and knee weakening solid waveforms of upper register distortion in unison, the guitars lining up into something uniformly punchy. All that energy and spirit of hardcore punk, introducing ear piercing noise in an ultimate homage to chaos.
B-side “Bed Head" opens with a bass line, before committing to the melting tones of overworked distortion. Psychic Blood could be compared to the fuzzy alternative style of Sonic Youth, its influence heavy on this track, only the vocal here has a panicked delivery, instead of Thurston’s cool detachment. They put their time in to get a great capture of the treble heavy kit and giant room snare. Everything is working on separate plains, layering in thick guitars without becoming too drone or sludgy. Bending the hell out of the screeching string tones and going back to torturing it. I hear a lot of that Seattle sound from the fringe groups in the scene, mostly because this is centered around the guitar and an anti-rock, angsty, fed up sound. It doesn't want the danger of hardcore punk speed, but is enjoying rolling over and getting into the abuse, turning the tables on this ugly sound to whip it into shape, intent on coming up with something new.
Looks like Psychic Blood has spent plenty of time recently in 7inches favorite venue's 285 Kent and Silent Barn. Pick this up on Nerve Hold Records, out friends up north. There's a mediafire download as well if you don't just can't get a local copy of this.
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