I hadn't heard about Ezana Edwards' previous project, Night Manager before he moved back to San Francisco and started this latest project Blood Sister, leaving subzero Brooklyn behind. Obviously he is a genius. The still life painting on the sleeve could have suggested nearly anything (I want to have a show where you give a band another bands cover art and they have to record a track from their idea of the album). This dark, damaged pop was the last thing I expected and especially from that part of the world. Of course they can be melancholy in San Francisco too, but we really get to feel sorry for ourselves on the East Coast these days.
A-Side's "Dysphoria" opens into feeding back echo and the clanging of strings accidentally brushed under heaps of sustain and distortion. It's not long before this smashes right up against miles away electronic snare of The Jesus and Mary Chain variety. I don't know where the rest of the percussion is from, the layers of guitars or synths (they're interchangeable here) are providing too much cover. The rhythm is like a cheap metronome, the pop structure they casually fuse together reminds me of Crystal Stilts or The Soft Moon. It has no business being so attractive and dark. The lengths they go exploring depths of electronics versus processed vibrating strings is where this gets really interesting. The guy girl vocals are heavily buried - overwhelmed by this future post punk sound with pieces of ringtoned melodies like the frantic ghost punk of These are Powers. It's a great sounding mystery of synth and guitar - when you can get those two worlds to cooperate in this sinister way that pretty much has me wanting to keep an eye on these guys.
B-Side's "Nothing" No sound before the crash of thick waves of bending upward guitar tones and bursts of power chords over that distanced electro-snare. The vocals seem to be adopting this dark style more on this one as it takes a mathy turn in Fucking Champs style technical fingerwork that appears out of the haze. It's almost an electro prog rock with all sorts of intricately crafted pieces suddenly going in for heavy calculations between the synth psych sections. I think they could benefit from smoke machines and playing in really ornate black basements with victorian couches. That could just be me figuring out how that sleeve plays into all of this underground synth punk.
Pick this one up from Grabbing Clouds Records.
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