Cassette Review: Blueback "Destroy" (Rok Lok Records)

What I like right away about Blueback is that I feel like we're in this position- in 2017- where we no longer have to defend instrumental music and if you feel like music has to have vocals/words in order for you to relate to it I'd suggest you step outside your two dimensional existence and explore the musical offerings reviewed on this site as alot of it has no lyrics and still remains so much better than certain music that does.

In listening to Blueback, I've hit this sort of writing wall because I'm not quite sure what to make of their sound.   See, there is this heavy quality to the music-- it just feels like it has that punk/hardcore element combined with rock, what I commonly refer to as "how I imagined Fugazi sounding before I actually heard them".    This heavier rocking gives them their own personality, their own sound, because you feel like if you were to see them live they would certainly be fucking shit up-- too wild to be contained.    (And I've actually seen the band Recover in such situations, so much so that at times it made it impossible for them to reach the mic stand to sing, so in that sense, vocals aren't holding back Blueback)

The first time I listened to "Destroy" though I was in my bedroom.   I felt at first that it had this sort of... I hesitate to say "jam band" feel to it, but it just felt complex in the guitar delivery where I wanted to compare it to Hendrix or BBJr.    It's not that it felt guitar driven, but it felt like it was being guided by notes in that classic rock sound.     Then I listened to the cassette again- in my living room this time- and found it to be more of a sound of heavier chords, which seems to speak for itself in that way I described previously.

It's not so much that I feel like I'm listening to a different cassette every time that I listen to this.   I feel more like it's a complex display of guitar work- coupled with some great drumming and other aspects- and as such you can sort of take something different from it at various times and it's going to take a bit before you truly grasp what is fully going on, but once you do, yeah, you're on another level then.


$6 // Edition of 50 // https://roklokrecords.bandcamp.com/album/destroy