Intensity is the word that characterises the long- awaited debut album from ‘self-facilitating media node’ OUTBLINKER.
A relentless, burning drive across six tracks that pummel their way through a squalling, squealing storm of drums and howling synthesisers. Positioned somewhere in the heavier end of kosmische musik and live electro, they’ve been in that spot of being your favourite band’s favourite band for a while now – pulling out collaborators like Grant Donaldson of Moni Jitchell, Kim Grant of Raveloe, and the illustrious Siobhan Wilson to join them in pulling apart the fabric of society, one anarchic squat party at a time.
The album is made up of six tracks, each named after the person they are exploring – although I’ll admit here that I only know who two of them (maybe two and half with a bit of a wild guess) are referring to. They’re mixed into each other, creating this forty-minute exploration of the dark side of humanity, pounding into the shadowy corners of the soul. Produced by Benjamin Power of Fuck Buttons/Blanck Mass, the album shares some of the drive of the former: taking those little repetitions and pulling them out to their natural explosive conclusions, flashing a white hot light into a dark crevasse for a moment before pulling back to the grimy dark.
If this all sounds a bit much, then I’m getting close. Maximalism is the key here: everything everywhere all at once, as the film would have it. A disorienting and exhilarating blur; a relentless churn that pulls the listener along behind it then drops us unceremoniously off outside the club, ears ringing, gasping for breath, and praying that we’ve still got our cloakroom tickets somewhere.
OUTBLINKER is out now via Gold Mold. Available to buy here
