"born in a wreck / Or should I say / a terracotta sunroom..."
While listening to the spinning blindfolded dance of Pastel Blank's "Terracotta Sunroom" shifting on funky disco-fied art rock twists I couldn't help but feel the pull of late 70's new wave and proto punk movements. Especially the halcyon days of New York's CBGB's with the progressive rock eruptions of artist's like Television and Talking Heads. Not only does the music pump and percolate, breathe, spin on it's heals and bend in hallucinogenic ways, the curious lyrics gleefully chewed and spit out by guitarist/vocalist Angus Watt are artfully obliquely drawn.
Of the track he shares: “I was reading a lot of Flannery O’Connor when I wrote ‘Terracotta Sunroom’, intrigued by her rendering of good country people wrestling with religious fanaticism, reproachable sins, and murky morality, all bubbling up to the surface through barely perceptible gestures. The novel ‘Wise Blood’ in particular was a big inspiration. When I was writing the lyrics, I thought of Hazel Motes and his tragic search for authentic belief in a world of religious hucksters.”
Pastel Blank is based out of Victoria, British Columbia. I am digging the deep funk grooves, the dashes of runaway bass lines, pearly keys, sideways guitar, the talking instrumentation and the abstract lyrics that make me think of the connection of religious and political hucksterism, of false prophets on pedestals of power whether on the dark web or in political office.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/pastelblank/
https://pastelblank.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KLjnA28m3s
https://open.spotify.com/track/7s4jGHzbsu4CyxivyBTTSS
https://www.instagram.com/pastel.blank/
Art-rock and funk join hands in a marriage of stutter and groove, officiated by Pastel Blank. Formed in 2019, the Victoria-based project is led by main songwriter Angus Watt. Pulling influence from the jerky rhythms and genre-blending curiosity of Talking Heads as well as the interlocking guitar-work of Canadian post-punk luminaries Women, the music of Pastel Blank cloaks experimentation in pop-minded song structure. Skeletal, wobbly guitars squeeze around the propulsive engine of thumping bass and drums, driving the beat forward as Watt’s percussive voice weaves a stream of cryptics into tongue-in-cheek wordplay reminiscent of Stephen Malkumus or Dan Bejar.
Pastel Blank, Alternative Rock, indie rock, art rock, proto punk, new wave, art funk, "Terracotta Sunroom", Victoria, Canada, British Columbia,
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