StemCell Therapy

Right now alls I want is someone to plop a Mad Hatter chapeau on my noggin, dose me, point in the direction of the nearest clandestine warehouse gig, and play this fucker loud.

This record by Blindness is among the best of what the shoegaze/postpunk moment of this year has to offer. Words fail to describe the genius of this album, one that will end up in the list of 2015

Theres a lot more to this album than a cursory glance would catch... Imagine PJ Harvey fronting a band made up of the members of The Scientists, Rema Rema and Guided By Voices. Trust me, this one needs to to be heard.

... Wrapped in Plastic is not industrial. Its electronic infused rock, with enough melodies to give it some pop cred. However it is much too dirty, to slick to be defined by those terms. As the band describes it, its Electro Filth, and its awesome!

BLiNDNESS is a loud shoegaze-centric trio out of London who released debut album Wrapped In Plastic through Saint Marie Records. It's a sonic blast that comes from Debbie Smith of Curve and Echobelly, a dark shivering slithering beast of a record.

Blindness is an aggressive trio of noise mongers... Feedback aficionados take note this one will scrape the paint off your living room walls while its ferocious energy will have you pogoing around the room.... these are not your typical Girl On A Motorcycle, leatherclad dolly birds looking to get peeled, rather hard rocking veterans incorporating their varied influences into a darkly fascinating listening experience.

BLiNDNESS just feels like they're operating on a different plane than everyone else and I love it about them.

From the opening fuzz-laden, sleazy bass grind of the opening Serves Me Right to the closing dark, hazy, danceable psychedelia of Confessions, Wrapped In Plastic maintains a thoroughly engaging standard of excellence rarely heard at all, let alone on a first release... Its English 90s Britpop and shoegaze mastery updated for a modern age of self-exiled technocrats.

Serves Me Right, the latest track taken from Twin Peaks-referencing debut album Wrapped In Plastic, may well remind you of JAMCs Sidewalking in its glorious sleaziness.

It may have been a long time coming but the debut album from BLiNDNESS makes time immaterial as it sizzles on the senses from start to finish spreading a dark wave electro pop seduction which is just as likely to snarl and explode with attitude as it is to smoulder and caress. Wrapped In Plastic is a sonically and imaginatively charged incitement, an adrenaline driven helter-skelter of sound and energy that ears and thoughts quickly bask in. The accompanying press release to the album calls it a rollercoaster ride of beautiful chaos and that about says it all... Wrapped In Plastic (is) a release you need to spend time with to reap all its strengths and qualities. BLiNDNESS definitely rewards such focus though with an encounter which leaves ears ringing, bodies sweaty, and satisfaction bloated.

BLINDNESS 101: A BRIEF INTRO TO A TRIO YOU DESPERATELY NEED TO BE LISTENING TO Although the UKs BLiNDNESS technically formed in 2008, their debut full-length, WRAPPED iN PLASTiC, isnt set to hit shelves until July 24th although the album is well worth the wait BLiNDNESS is comprised of Beth Rettig, Emma Quick, and Debbie Smith (of Curve, Echobelly, and Snowpony fame), a trio whose sonic output is reflective of many of the 1990s greatest musical movements, from straight-ahead alt rock to shoegaze and electronic rock, with notable hints of industrial and grunge, but while always maintaining an aesthetic that puts their songwriting (which seems largely indebted to post-punk) center stage. The band...have an upcoming album launch show on July 26th at Londons Nambucca and, although they have no current plans to play this side of the Atlantic, in a recent chat with Beth Rettig, she reveals to me that thats something that (they) could get quite excited about...

Band of the Month - July - Blindness As the country bakes in current heat wave, we thought wed bring you one of the coolest bands to come out of scorching London, Blindness. The trio are set to release their fervently anticipated debut LP, which is already heralding critical acclaim and rightly so too. Two of the band, Beth Rettig and Debbie Smith, answer our questions...

Tracks of the Month (May 2015) Blindness - Sunday Morning from Wrapped In Plastic album. "The debut album from Blindness has been a long, long time coming, but having heard the whole thing a few times now (a review is nearly complete, I promise!), it delivers on the promise that this band have had for ages now. The pick of the album for me is this track, like a few on the album a long-time part of their live repertoire. Rather than the squalling guitar effects and bitter, furious vocals that are their perhaps more regular sound, this song has a more languid air that befits the title, a near trip-hop-esque beat and the fuzzy, remorseful feel of the morning after that follows a long, long night. The album Wrapped In Plastic is released 24-July."

THE MAGNIFICENT 7 Week 22 No. 5 Humming Song by BLINDNESS Multilayered, dark electro turmoil from London

Wrapped in Plastic wraps its smooth electro legs around you with an impulsive sexual ferocity. Like a mind blowing encounter with a mysterious woman you met a day ago that has to abruptly leave to catch her flight home. She obviously didn't tell you her secret and you're too caught up in the stranglehold-high to even care. Dark erotic melodies and grinding disco-dark waves drag you into a turbulent sea of lust, euphoria, and sultry contemplation on the latest full-length from the band known as BLiNDNESS. Hesitant sordid fragments of feedback and sonic six string scratches breathe heavy within these mood altering alterations of modern song. Kicking and playfully screaming from start to finish, the seductive and wary vocals of Beth Rettig pull you into the sweet ruptured noise. She hones a twisted tone that combines Sleeper and The Stranglers into a steamy design of volatile unhinged harmony... a feverish nine-song sleepwalk into the darkest pleasures of an endless summer night.

The trio of Beth Rettig, Emma Quick, and Debbie Smith (guitarist for Curve, Echobelly, and Snowpony) take the sideways-side-walking paths established by the UKs leather & distortion clad indie upstarts deeper into the melting pot marshes of melted & boiled media fabrics that informs todays rebels. The video for Confessions presents Beth, Debbie, and Emma performing about in a linen covered (or maybe its plastic?) space, where Blindness sheds some views into dealing with matters whilst feeling broke down. Without a sign of surrendering to fleeting feelings, and asserting themselves; Blindness takes on a slew of different expressive poses to show serious sides, the aches of being addled with anxiety, and more to make for dramatic shots to match the gruelling grate of guitar gears.

Featuring Beth Rettig (vocals, programming), Emma Quick (bass) and Debbie Smith (guitar), best known as being the guitarist in Curve, Echobelly and Snowpony, the London-based trio Blindness formed in 2008. And since the bands formation, theyve developed a reputation for a darkly seductive sound thats been influenced by The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and PJ Harvey. As youll hear on their latest single, Confessions off their forthcoming album, Wrapped in Plastic, the song consists of explosive blasts of propulsive drumming, power chords played through layers upon layers of distortion and feedback paired with Rettigs come hither vocals and as a result, the trio have received quite a bit of attention across their native London; but I suspect that with the release of Wrapped in Plastic, youll start hearing more about the British trio, as they put a subtle yet new spin on a familiar and beloved sound.

I first encountered London Blindness about 12 months ago and was blown away by their music... Their sound takes a walk on the darker side of chillwave with an electro-pop sheen. They recycle Garbage (sorry current resist) with more than a hint of one of guitarist Debbie Smith's former bands Curve. The awesome 'Broken' is a slab of dirty, sleazy, dark robotic pop. 'Confessions' is more Curvey with a beat so big it could cause an earthquake. There are none so blind than those that will not see the brilliance of Blindness.

...The music is spacious, urgent and dark with the last track reminiscent of how Joy Division would have sounded had PJ Harvey been at the Helm..

Thanks to a friend for the headsup on this lot - a seemingly London-based band who, by their own admission, channel Kate Bush, My Bloody Valentine, Curve and Nine Inch Nails, and remarkably really do end up sounding like a mashup of the four. It has a shoegazey vibe to it, particularly in the barely intelligible vocals, the buzzing guitars, and the dense production. But crucially they haven't forgotten the tunes, particularly in the fantastic title track. They are playing live in London twice this month, and I perhaps ought to make a beeline for at least one of the gigs - I suspect we are going to be hearing a lot more about this lot in the coming months.

A Model Of Control

...Fans of Curve MBV, Lush, NIN and the JAMC will no doubt be impressed by the throbbing beast of a song that is Confessions fusing loops, beats with searing guitar to devastating effect.

Tonight I only have time for one band. And I choose...Blindness. Blindness layer their songs in shuddering sheets of effect-laden guitar-noise, the sweeping guitar-tides break on the rocks of the beat. Programming and real drums, working together in an unholy alliance, slap down a rhythm that doesn't mess about. The basslines go striding relentlessly through the sonic surf as if they're wearing wading boots. There's a pop sensibility at work in the songwriting, too. The band don't just do noise. Vocalist Beth Rettig strikes surrealist vogueing shapes in a dress that looks like it's had a bite taken out of it by a passing shark (what is it with me and my sea similies today?) and sings in a glassy croon that goes from soothing to scary in the space of a chorus. As the set progresses, the scariness levels increase until she reaches some sort of overload and collapses on stage, lying there unmoving as the music convulses around her...

No messing around here, heavily Nine Inch Nails influenced electro-pop that is lean and polished. The thundering title track sounds like giant factory machinery that just happens to be creating music, howling and whistling with feedback, a constant for most of the EP that never sounds gratuitous. Confessions is a fine EP that manages to be comprehensive and varied within the confines of its three tracks... Its hard to find fault with this.

Creatures of the night behold Blindness for they are playing your tune. Hailing from the Big Smoke, theyve got that grindhouse electro pop feel that seems right at home after midnight. The title track of this EP - Confessions strafes you with ripped up riffs and droning loops that drill their way into your daylight starved brain. Crank the volume up a bit more and it all makes sense. Well sort of. Were talking a sort of madness here - the hormonal insanity of a broke down girl. Twisted and compelling and surely no stranger to the dangers of the dance floor, Beth Rettigs vocals exude the necessary torment. Broken goes all robotic but manages to sound vaguely mystical with the vocals drifting high above you over the kind of distorted psyched out guitar that makes you think of a half speed drug induced trance... One more for the soundtrack of your own personal urban wasteland

I love this Do you remember Curve? Well Blindness will certainly help you remember them and also have their own dark wave, brooding, ominous female vocal. Very urgent, very strong and powerful and its one of those ones that creeps up on you and pops a hood over your head and wrestles you to the ground and forces you to keep listening to it, which makes it sound like some sort of musical stalker... Another great track

Vibrant rich silky alternative darkwave pop with an electronic edge and a healthy touch of Curve/ Nine Inch Nails/Jesus & Mary Chain to gently propel it all along. Girl-voiced lushness, exquisite warmth, seductive dark wave electro pop and rising temperatures from the London based (four) piece. Beth Rettig on vocals, Debbie Smith (ex Curve/Echobelly) on guitar, Kendra Frost on bass.

A monster beat, layered squalls of guitar, and a vocal at once rueful and exultant - 'It was the best I could do in the state I was in,' sings Beth Rettig on 'Confessions', as the guitar ties itself in frayed knots and the bassline strides nonchalantly past in its big boots. Blindness match dirty technology with a big rock racket, and in 'Confessions' - a song about emerging bloodied but unbowed from some unspecified trauma - they've created an anthem that grabs both regret and triumph by the scruff of their necks and sets them marching... 'Broken' is all grinding bass and eruptions of volcanic guitar - that's Debbie Smith on guitar, ex-Curve, and her sheets of noise are instantly recognisable. 'No One Counts' is a bit of a ballad, but it's no shrinking violet. It's got a stuttering machine-beat, that untrammelled six-string overdrive, and plenty of the band's dirty cool. Dirt and coolness? Yes, that's the stuff we like.

See more here:
Blindness | ReverbNation

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