ELECTRIC BLANKET
“Living Room Relapse” (self-released)




Electric Blanket, aka Kevin Frank of British Columbia, is a genius band namer. He’s taken the twin concepts at the heart of shoegaze, electricity and the suffocating at times but ultimately safe swathing of a blanket (in this case, a blanket of guitar effects). Bear fucking with me.* You know how your favorite shoegaze bands, whether it’s My Bloody Valentine or Slowdive or Lush or any of the other ones, just feel right, just feel like they get you and that you can go to them (meaning their records, not them them) with any of your problems? You can close out the rest of the world when you’re hanging out with your best shoegaze buds, you can insulate and medicate, you can, ahem, cover yourself in the comforting blanket of sonic joy they produce.

Oh yeah, that makes total sense! Electric Blanket is an electric-y blanket-y wash of lo-fi sonic ear candy, cotton candy, candy that’s sticky and dense and light and fluffy and sweet all at the same time. It’s an antidote to the melancholy of youth and should make you feel better when that special someone doesn’t quite return your affection for them. I should know – I’ve felt affection for and been spurned by many. I mean, to be honest, this was like almost twenty years ago or so now, and my emotional radar barely registers anything anymore. No blips, no bloops, no pings. I’m an old, rotten husk, wondering how Electric Blanket can still do it, pining for his youth. Maybe there’s some sort of Brothers Grimm magic where I can siphon off his life force like a witch or something. Nah, I’d much rather just listen to the seven sweet songs on this luscious green cassette.

*Or don’t bear fucking with me, your call.



--Ryan Masteller