Blessed - Circuitous [CD]

Blessed's sophomore release, "Circuitous", cements and expands on their status as a band's band: a patient, eclectic career outfit guided by the intense pursuit of an internally-dictated creative agenda. The group has sharpened their strengths, bringing an ever-growing depth of songwriting and artistic evolution to their craft.Composed from hours of jam material and hundreds of demos, "Circuitous" comprises eight tracks that sprawl and thrash and burst and fall. The record finds the band digging deeper into their vast collective catalog of influences, taking notes from groups as diverse as Mount Kimbie, Shabazz Palaces, Liquid Liquid, and Unwound. The result is a sweeping, hyperreal, industrial art-rock tragedy, rendered in walls of noise, controlled drums, meandering ambience, and staccato syncopation, while touching on topics like agoraphobia, isolation, grief, the hyper-control of capital and the numbness it breeds. Circuitous was mixed by John Congleton (Swans, St. Vincent, Wye Oak) and mastered by Greg Obis (Alabaster Deplume, Cloud Nothings, Stuck).