Review: Blessure Grave – Learn to Love the Rope EP
Blessure Grave – Learn to Love the Rope EP (2009) [Captured Tracks] // Grade: A-
I’m going heavy on the Goth inspired releases today! Learn to Love the Rope EP is the San Diego band’s first 12″ release after the excellent Unknown Blessures tape issued earlier this year. Blessure Grave are a bit of an oddity… currently they’re getting lumped in alongside lo-fi revivalists like Wavves, Blank Dogs & Woods and well having this come out on Captured Tracks probably doesn’t really help escape the association. But the obvious comparisons in lo-fi aesthetics aside, Blessure Grave probably have a lot more in common with Death in June than Guided by Voices… just look at the cover design!
Probably one of the few bands not adorned in latex, fangs and dayglow dreads to openly and proudly refer to themselves as “Goth”, Blessure Grave are just that in the spirit and sound of the genre’s humble (and less ridiculous) beginnings. Raw, primitive and blissfully lo-fi, the 5 haunting tracks across Learn to Love the Rope hearken back fondly to not only the dramatic aesthetics of bands like Play Dead & (early) Danse Society but the quiet and understated beauty of The Young Marble Giants, all without ever straight up aping any of them. For anyone with a serious and deep adoration for 70s and 80s Goth and Post-Punk, I implore you to check out this release, you won’t be disappointed.
- My Pal the Crook
February 9th, 2010 at 9:38 am
[...] Blessure Grave’s latest—and by far my favorite, despite the amazing Learn To Love The Rope EP—can’t be reduced to sheer revivalism; this is an album far more intricate than that. [...]
May 21st, 2010 at 2:39 pm
[...] calling the “Grave Wave” movement. They’ve had countless 7-inch releases, an EP on Captured Tracks and earlier this year, the band released their debut full-length, Judged by 12, carried by 6. But [...]
June 1st, 2010 at 2:02 pm
[...] calling the “Grave Wave” movement. They’ve had countless 7-inch releases, an EP on Captured Tracks and earlier this year, the band released their debut full-length, Judged by 12, carried by 6. But [...]