Pitched against his output as drummer in Seattle’s heavy metal doom/psych outfit Lesbian and improv psychedelic sister outfit Fungal Abyss, this debut release by Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy AKA (Blouse)usa, ranks as the oddball to say the least. Out for a few years now on Dead Accents and limited to just 140 copies, I picked up this CD-r in London whilst Lesbian were on the UK leg of their 2012 European tour.
Quirky and often nightmarish / experimentation in ethereal soundscapes / beautifully incoherent, like a series of fragmented dreams pasted into a collage of sound – these too are just a few equally fragmented micro-sentences aimed at trying to describe Benjamin’s lone-wolf (Blouse)usa project.
The 17 equally eclectic and succintly titled tracks are just as random as the music itself so perhaps that’s the common theme – unrestrained and uncluttered experimentation / freak beats in the key of weird? Or chaos and confusion in the key of serenity? You decide.
This may however, just be the perfect medicine to help nurse those repeated brain-shaking hangovers of Lesbros in their more immediate guises – it sure worked for me. Alka-Seltzer for the ears. Standout track, Terminal Scout.
more here (BLOUSE)usa
