We get sent lots of emails telling us about new releases, some of which we generally ignore because they are about releases from bands based outside of Yorkshire. But sometimes we get so grabbed by something that we feel compelled to review it, to present it to you, our readers.
This was the case with this release from Manchester’s Blanketman. A few seconds into the track was I hooked, I thought it was wonderful, so wonderful that I’ve grown addicted to it.
The press release, and you can’t always trust a press release, describes Blanketman as post-punk. This is misleading. It’s going to make you think of dark and edgy sounds. What you need to do is to think of this as a different sort of post-punk. Music that took the punk ethos in a different direction.
Having mused for several hours and asked various friends what they thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that Blanketman sound like a cross between Talking Heads and The B-52s. They have that angular restless rhythmic thing that Talking Heads have, but with the musical sense of fun that The B-52s embody, not to mention that rather wonderful approach to vocals. And this thing is sparse, there are not layers and layers of sound in it, you hear all the instruments.
What this makes for is a wonderfully dance-able track but with the added thrill of it being something that you can listen to without throwing yourself around a room. This thing oozes musical cleverness and is very obviously the sound of a band who know what they are doing.
This is completely fab, listen to it now.
The info
Blanketman are:
Adam Hopper – lead vocals, guitar
Jeremy Torralvo Godoy – bass, backing vocals
Ellie-Rose Elliott – drums, backing vocals
Daniel Hand – lead guitar
Eden Hemphill – keys, guitar, violin, backing vocals
