Blank Dogs – Under & Under (2009) [In the Red] // Grade: A-

Mike Sniper is one busy dude. In the last 2 years he’s churned out EP after EP, compilations  and now comes Under & Under comes his second Blank Dogs full length. If you’ve followed the band for anytime you’ll have surely noticed that their self proclaimed brand of “Shitgaze” has grown more and more accessible with each release. However accessible is a relative term when Shitgaze can be summed up as a mix between Lo-Fi Garage and Synth-Punk.

Under & Under is easily the Dogs most cohesive and satisfying release. In the past 2 years Sniper has gone out of his way in establishing an unmistakable sound within loosely contained songs that were more delivery method than anything else. And while as fun and enjoyable as Sniper made that, Under & Under finally harnesses that sound and fleshes it out into an album’s worth of fully realized songs… infectious, weird and well, great songs. Sure they’re buried under so much fuzz that they sound like Alien transmissions coming in, but that’s part of their charm… Having that fuzzy buffer distances each song from the basic Pop structure it’s built on, re-imagining the mundane as exotic.

It’s a bit of a grower but with very listen (and I’ve had quite a few) you take back something new and equally as charming from this album. Get on the Blank Dog’s wave now while they’re still on the ground floor of the Hype machine!