Deja What?

After years of basement noise excavations culminated in 2009’s Heatless Ark (Not Not Fun), Blank Realm began to inject pop and rock forms into their sonic ramblings. The resulting album is an uneasy marriage of 70/80s US experimental punk (think Chrome,Factrix or Debris) with ultra crude Flying Nun styled pop. At times it’s hard to tell if the results are casual and unfinished, or if the album is a complete universe unto itself. For those who have just got wise to this year’s acclaimed ‘Go Easy’, ‘Déjà What?’ will prove an essential backtrack in this fascinating origin story. ‘Déjà What?’ is a crucial stone turned in the Realm’s endless rumble towards basement Valhalla. Brendon Annesley of Negative Guest List on the original CDR release: Blank Realm are back doing what they do most; releasing heavily under-distributed studio albums on boutique hobby labels. This CDR, limited to 52 copies, is their first release since the ‘HeatIess Ark’ LP; and marks their almost complete departure into the Total Rock universe which that record hinted at in its most concise segments. The first two tracks are wigless shape-shifters, “Full Moon Door” is shameless synth pop – the album’s most immediately recognisable “hey, that’s a song that I can remember and will be able to discern clearly in the future if I need to for whatever reason” moment- somewhat mood-building and wrapped in a blanket of white silk. Then bashed against a hard surface, like breaking ice. “Trained Creep”, the buzzing, popping thing that sounds like acid, is an excellent song title that I will be adding into my vocabulary and using to describe myself to new people. Blank Realm are either at the bloody, beating centre of a new rock movement or are making an askew shift towards the bedroom pop market, and ‘Deja What?’ is the first signifier of either. Likely to turn heads and get an eventual vinyl pressing, whether by means of enthusiastic fandom or petty capitalism. Either way, you’ll be grinnin’ like a monkey in a barrel of dog hair and someone’s gonna be crying for shelter. So bring a coat or something