Winnipeg-based band bland make a powerful first impression with their debut EP consumables, captivating with a sound that blends post-punk intrigue and passionate rock immediacy. Recorded at No Fun Club and sharpened by Rob Hill’s engineering alongside Donovan Ostopowich’s mixing and mastering, the release is a thoroughly impressive offering from the rising act.
“These songs came from all over the place, but recording them together gave them a shape,” vocalist Ike Hedenstierna says. “We finally took the leap. Now we’re writing music that sounds like us, whatever that ends up being.”
Opening track “panacea” swells with immediate momentum. A jumpy bass line and whirring guitars craft a simmering enthrallment. “There’s a golden thread, there’s a magic spell, there’s a silver bullet” a debonair vocal entry commences, reminding fondly of black midi in the suave vocal disposition and post-punk rhythmic build. “Are you betting on it? Are you counting on it?” they continue to intensify, culminating in a raucously enjoyable fervency by mid-point; the shout-y vocal backings here invigorate further, as do the lyrical sentiments of capturing how people search differently for antidotes to personal tumult.
The opener’s climactic appeal continues with the stellar “tough love,” which drives into a dynamic title-touting hook that ventures from dark solemnity to a charismatic rock vigor. The EP impresses across all five tracks, from the brisk punchiness of “current affairs” — stirring especially in a scorching guitar solo past the mid-point — to the riveting finale “is it enough.” That send-off begins with a rumbling rhythmic presence, then expanding into a no-frills rock confidence that shows shades of The Libertines and The Strokes in its vocal feeling and spirited guitar escalations. consumables is a fully enveloping success from bland, who prove masterful in their post-punk and rock synergy.
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“panacea” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
