Give Blood
Peripheral Vision
January 31 2015 (self-released)
6/10
Words: Alison Mack
"Peripheral Vision is an EP that I can't quite put my finger on," runs the tag line on Soundcloud. Never a truer sentence. This five-track work by the London-based electronic trio is a difficult one to both categorize, and to be honest, to listen to - at least in one sitting.
Mixing live instrumentation with electronic elements can be effective when fused with the right vocals and lyrics. Here it more sinks into a depth that could have easily seem this called 'Depressives' Industrial'; certainly the die is cast low down on the spectrum.
From opener, the rangey 'Everyone's Against Me' to 'And Every Time', the mix of hazy drum beat sampling and depressive vocals, create little more than an avant-garde solemnity. Elsewhere the title track is textured, lending eeriness and a vocal disconnection in that same way as employed by Zola Blood (perhaps a hemoglobin thing?) that manages to sound detached from their musical bedrock.
'Blind Spot' harnesses vocal manipulation and edgy experimental electronics in an ambient industrial cadence. Had it been shorter as a seque it might have worked better; this feels more like a few gaskets are out of tune.
Followed by 'Animal Cartel', it moves into easier listening territory to close off the EP, and picks up on melody and instrumentation, making it the highlight of the bunch - possibly as it is the most resemblant of Give Blood's last EP, 'Cuboid'.
And there, we may point the proverbial finger: in having moved more to the experimental side on this record, it may have been at the cost of sacrificing that which had so much more appeal on their earlier work.
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