If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of months, you may recall coming across a post on Austin, TX-based shoegaze act Bloody Knives. Initially comprised of Preston Maddox (bass, vocals, keyboards, samples and programming) Jake McCown (drums, noise, programming) — and now feating the featuring the contributions of recent recruits Jack O’Hara Harris (guitar), Richard Napierkowski (synth) and Martin McCreadie (synth) as touring members of the band, the Austin-based act have developed a profile both locally and regionally for a sound that meshes elements of punk, industrial electronica and ambient electronica with 8 bit glitches, bloops and bleeps — and much like My Bloody Valentine, A Place to Bury Strangers, The Jesus and Mary Chain their sound and aesthetic frequently possesses a sublime and dreamy beauty underneath a bleak, punishing forcefulness.
I Will Cut Your Heart Out For This, Bloody Knives’ latest effort was released last week through renowned shoegaze label Saint Marie Records, and the album was reportedly inspired by the “forgotten places, the dark corners of empty cities, decaying buildings filled with vacant people” — the world of the lost and broken.” And although the album’s second and latest single “Static” beings with soaring synths and buzzing electronics, much like previous single “Poison Halo,” the latest single pairs scorching guitar chords played with towering layers of feedback, a throbbing bass line and thundering drumming. While both the album’s first two singles insistently push the boundaries of contemporary shoegaze towards darker and much more forceful territory, their overall sound reminds me a bit of My Vitriol as the material possesses an anthemic quality that belies its swooning and urgent nature.
