BLANK DOGS - Under And Under

It took nothing more than relentless word of mouth and a string of good reviews for good old Mike Sniper to morph from an ultra-underground cult phenomenon, the pride of the most hardcore and uncompromising musical spelunkers, into a potential idol for thousands of indie kids scattered across the blogosphere. But the die is cast now, and there seems to be no turning back. No great loss, for those who believe in it.

Having said that what you're about to read isn't the rant of some jealous onlooker wanting "the world to know", I must confess with total honesty to my partial disappointment with this new creature spawned by the deranged mind of Mr Blank Dogs. Without further ado, I'll admit I was expecting a bold swerve in the direction of a couple of nothing-less-than-formidable EPs, namely "Seconds" and "Captured Tracks Vol. 1" — that is, a decisive plunge into the depths of an even more layered electronics, a martial and unsettling cold wave (self-ironic as it may be), somewhat like Factums' "A Primitive Future Soundtrack", which really was a great record of frayed-at-the-edges experimentalism.

That hasn't happened, and this "Under And Under" comes across as a faded photocopy of its wonderful predecessor, "On Two Sides". Don't get me wrong, Blank Dogs is still capable here of dishing out melodies and roundness as if he were a post-Sarah Records pop band, and on that score you need only listen to the beautiful "No Compass", "L Machine" and "Tin Birds", sticky and sickly-sweet like flypaper.

If we consider, though, that some of these tracks had already been floating around for a while, and that across the 15 tracks (on the CD version) there are several lulls, then there's good reason to turn up one's nose. He's a trickster, and there'll be no shortage of latecomer flatterers ready to tear their clothes in praise, rest assured. But it's fair to ask more of him, since he's already proven he can deliver it.

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21/06/2009