If my records are correct (a big if), we haven’t had new music from Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy’s solo-experimental-mostly-electronic project blouseusa since volume 22 – a good nine years ago. This was when the project was called Blouse (u.s.a.), but after it was just called Blouse for an appearance on volume 16. BT-K’s project both pre-dated and seems to have outlived that other Blouse band, but hey, that’s life.
Anyway . . . my previous exposure to this project was as an outlet for relatively chill, low-key, occasionally whimsical experiments in electronica from a musician who happens to be a monster drummer. That was then. Things get real percussive real fast with “Sisters,” which is a buzzing whir of noise and rhythm, an extended full-kit drum solo (played on electronic drums, as far as I can tell) overlaid with frenetic synths and keys of every imaginable hue and timbre. Very little changes in the general sound of the piece throughout, but over the course of its 2-and-a-half-minute run time, something happens to your brain (or to my brain anyway), and what was aggressive and anxiety-inducing at first becomes almost calming, a warm, buzzing, musical blanket. Chord changes are discernible, melody even peeks its head out from time to time. “Sisters” is a highly enjoyable – if not toe-tappingly accessible – sonic experiment from a gifted and often-surprising musician.