BLUE “Only Attitude” (Blacktop Records)

This snotty punk EP splits the difference between Fat Wreck Chords and Vagrant on the scale of fast and accessible. It’s mostly fast, as Ross Miller bangs out seven tunes at a whiplash pace, most much less than two minutes long. The five tracks on side A were pieced together to combat bad attitudes with positivity, and the two tracks on side B were cobbled together quickly “when positivity felt far away.” There’s no denying the overwhelming energy that Miller brings to his music, and pogoing and mosh pits will not be far behind when this tape is played. Let’s be kind in those types of gatherings though – inclusivity, people! Not that we’re getting together anytime soon. With COVID and all.

 

https://blacktoprecords.bandcamp.com/

 

--Ryan

BLUE "Kepler 20-F Suite" C30 (Love Earth Music)

With this album title, it’s easy to assign these seemingly untranslatable-to-human fluctuations in soundwaves as possible cosmic echoes off of distant planets and/or maybe, liek, signs from Extraterrestrial Intelligence orsomething. To the layperson, it all could easily sound like someone just jerking around with a theremin and distortion pedal. I suggest it’s somewhere in between. Make no mistake about it, though, that if you put enough effort into listening to this stuff while sitting still, with decent headphones, the psychoacoustic headfuckery achieved is very, very real; it leaves me thinking that this multi-channeled recording is, in fact, careful and deliberate…but I’m on summer vacation and in the mood for weird shit, so maybe it’s just me?

On a semi-related note, Love Earth Music puts out some pretty decent stuff…and sporadically some stuff I’d personally deem as unlistenably formulaic (this release is very much the former), but I’d pick up just about anything they’d put out if I found it in a used bin, and, if you, too, love the weird shit, I suggest you do the same. Otherwise, with their bare-bones (read: “not helpful”) website, you’ll never know the outsider glory that is their oh-so-mysterious-d-i-y shtick.

http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan