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Album: Fucking Bliss
Artist: American Pleasure Club (formerly Teen Suicide Club)
Genre: #Ambient
Sub-Genres:
Label: Run for Cover
Non-Airable Tracks: n/a
Release Date: March 29th, 2019
Description:
Fucking Bliss is the third album released under the name American Pleasure Club but, unlike the last album, this music is Sam Ray by himself, no band. The album itself clocks in around 26 but there is no shortage of ideas present but, since the average track length is near 3 minutes, many tracks feel unfinished. There is also a severe lack of cohesion among the tracklist which is not a bad thing but deters from future listens all the way through. However, this grouped with the fact the songs are hardly developed make the album feel more like Ray showing his unfinished ideas to a friend for advice rather than something which warrants a release.
Yet, still, it is released and the music is good.
The pieces here can be grouped into three categories; Grouper-eqsue ethereal nosiefests (“The Miserable Vision”, “What Kind of Love”, “It’s Everything to Me”, “Faith”), contemporary industrial music (“Hello Grace”, “Dragged Around the Lawn”), and tense builds (“Ban This Book”, “Let it Go Out”). Those last two are easily the best songs on the album with just how powerful they show they can be, but both sound like they end prematurely. The first group of songs are the most middling, “Faith” is probably the best and the industrial songs could use the most work.
I am ultimately reminded of Stara Rzeka’s album Cień chmury nad ukrytym polem with its blend of both pleasing and harsh ambiance which is good because that is a great album (though maybe that’s just my own experience with each album). That album also reveals how a bit more work on expanding the ideas here could go a long way, even if it winds up sounding different.
Sounds Like: Stara Rzeka, Grouper
Recommended tracks for radio play: Ban This Book
Reviewer: Bryan Burnett
Review Date: April 9th, 2019
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