A taxidermied parrot glares back at you from the cover of Bruise Blood’s debut album You Run Through This World Like An Open Razor. The bird was once a childhood presence for Bruise Blood’s Mike Bourne, but recently has presided over his home studio, and thus the making of this album. Now, the listener is graced with its glassy eyes glaring at them, creating a uncanny Pynchon-esque scene soundtracked by the album title, which feels like it could also be some cryptic dialogue from the Red Room in Twin Peaks. So, with plenty of absurdity to enjoy, and questions to ponder, the album is set up for an surreal, but enjoyable ride.
The album opener ‘The Pressure’ crashes in without any hesitation with 80s coded, dark synth riffs coursing through the veins of the track. An undecipherable vocal adds more groove to an already rhythmic track before the vocal is seemingly transformed into screeches and hails similar to that of a seagull – marking the true start of a descent into absurdity.
By ‘Cede’, the auditory journey is stripped back down to the simplicity of pounding techno drums, before industrial crunches and stabs of sub bass are lathered all over the song. The album’s title track similarly reflects Bourne’s ability to produce a club tune, as swelling synth pads rise through marching kick drums, as if soundtracking a drug-induced scene in a Gaspar Noé film.
Despite these heavy tracks, there are some lovely moments of tranquility, albeit few and far between. ‘And They Burned a Hole Through the Earth All the Way to Hell’ fits this bill, despite what its title might suggest. A guttural voice sits far back in the mix as a droning bass and heavily echoed synths cruise across the drumless track. The outro to the album, ‘Glass Nine’, features a lovely moment of calm in the last two and a half minutes of the track as Giorgio Moroder-esque arpeggiated synths pan between the listener’s ears.
‘Until the Sun Breaks Down’ is a wonderful song and at the middle of the album, is a perfect conduit for an auditory breather after the acid infused ‘You’re in Control’ and drum’n’bass bathed ‘Mindseye’. ‘Oh But You Can, Oh But You Will’ leans into the harder rock style of his band Teeth of the Sea, as guitar strums overlay a voice stating “this is what you want, this is what you get”.
Often though, what you want isn’t what you get. If you asked me after the first track what I wanted, I would’ve said more electro infused, chugging tracks. By the end, Bourne has instead taken the listener on a dystopian synth-wave journey, and although not thinking it was what I wanted, perhaps the various sonic u-turns and great absurdity of the album is exactly what I needed.
