I’ve been reluctant to play this record even though it cost an arm and a leg, and I had to wait about 8-months for it to be delivered - damn you global pandemic!!! This delay has seen me spit my dummy out of the pram and put the record to the back of the ‘to play’ list. I know, daft.
Blaqk Audio is the side project of vocalist Davey Havok and keyboardist Jade Puget who make up one-half of Californian emo/goth rock band AFI. This record doesn’t sound like AFI though, the vocal may be familiar but the guitars are long gone.
So what does it sound like? Think new wave, industrial synth pop ranging from danceable bangers (Consort’ and ‘A Distant Light’) to moody ballads (1948) and lots of variations on a theme in between.
It is another album that sounds like it could be the soundtrack to Stranger Things without much of a push, which is a good thing in my book.
This album is the sister release to 2019s ‘Only Things We Love’, which I played to death when it came out, I can confirm that this record is indeed evolution rather than revolution - not necessarily a bad thing if you like this sort of thing (which I do!)
If you fancy a copy, you are going to struggle to be honest, they only pressed 500 copies and I can only see them on Discogs going for around £120.
Mine isn’t worth that though, as the record has burst through the sleeve at the top and the bottom, from being lashed about by the various postal services who handled it on its trip from California. Grrr…
Tracks To Try: ‘Consort’, ’Zipper Don’t Work’, ‘A Distant Light’, ‘Burnt Babies Fear The Fire’,