Review: Blown Out - Planetary Engineering

This is a very good week...first a new Electric Moon LP closely followed by a new Blown Out...life doesn't really get any better than this!

This release, however, is not just about Blown Out - it is being put out by Oaken Palace Records. For those who are unaware, Oaken Palace Records is an independent and 100% charitable record label based in Birmingham. All profits made through selling the records are donated to environmental organisations that work towards the protection and conservation of endangered species and their habitat. I first became aware of them last year with the release of the Eternal Tapestry 'Guru Overload' LP (which made it into my top 10 of last year!) the profits from which went to help the protection of Orangutans. For this release Blown Out have dedicated their album to the Aye-aye, "a lemur that can only be found on Madagascar. It is the world’s largest nocturnal primate. The aye-aye is often viewed as a harbinger of evil and killed on sight. Others believe, if one points its narrowest finger at someone, they are marked for death. Some say the appearance of an aye-aye in a village predicts the death of a villager, and the only way to prevent this is to kill it. The Sakalava people go so far as to claim aye-ayes sneak into houses through the thatched roofs and murder the sleeping occupants by using their middle finger to puncture the victim’s aorta. Incidents of aye-aye killings increase every year as its forest habitats are destroyed and it is forced to raid plantations and villages. Because of the superstition surrounding it, this often ends in death." (from press release)



Blown Out features members of BONG, 11Paranoias, Haikai No Ku, Drunk In Hell, Khunnt, and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs...and that alone tells you that you are in a for a gloriously heavy treat. Their last LP 'Jet Black Hallucinations' (which I reviewed here) was a masterpiece in lysergic, bowel-loosening psych, and 'Planetary Engineering' follows on superbly from where that left off.

'Planetary Engineering' consists of just 2 tracks, both clocking in at the twenty minute mark. Musically it has the same formula as 'Jet Black Hallucinations' (and indeed it's predecessor 'Drifting Way Out Between Suns')- deep, rolling basslines, drums crashing like jackhammers and the virtuoso psychedelic freakout guitar of Mike Vest. The first track 'Transcending Deep Infinity' is an apposite title as one could imagine....the cavernous, echoey repetition and rolling bass like a generation long journey to the far side of the cosmos and with all the nerve-jangling tension and sense of foreboding that that would hold. 'Thousand Years In The Sunshine' is more of a showcase for Vest's guitar.....less repetition and more wigging out. As with all of Vest's work, there is quality, atmosphere and the feeling that you are in the company of a psychedelic maestro.

I confess to having a small amount of dread when this LP came through....'Jet Black Hallucinations' is one of, if not my absolute, favourite LPs of 2015 thus far and in cases like that there is always that fear that subsequent albums will not measure up.....but that fear was needless...this is another tour de force from the guys in Blown Out. The same power, the same almost hypnotic qualities of '...Hallucinations' and the same level of unwavering musicianship and quality. 'Planetary Engineering' is, again, an apt title.....the sheer heaviness could be used to terraform Mars. The bonus, as if we need one, is that this LP will actually help the plight of those furry little Aye-Ayes.....Fantastic music, fantastic cause. So...buy it when it is released late May / early June via the laudable Oaken Palace Records (limited to 500 copies in space black vinyl, housed in 100% recycled sleeves with artwork by Anthony Downie).