Been yearning for some Blackout Beach? Well, today’s your day, then! Carey Mercer and company have released a pay-what-you-want digital album called 11 Pink Helicopters in the Coral Sky on Bandcamp that you can go and download RIGHT NOW! For fans of Frog Eyes and Blackout Beach, this unexpected morsel of guitar noodling and muffled reverb should come as a welcome surprise. To those out there that are downright frightened of Mercer’s intense vocal style, you should also check this out, as the record features none of Mercer’s trademark yelps or shrieks (though they’ve still attributed the tag “boar dying in a tar pit” to the this release, for some reason…). Instead, the album sounds like a collection of (very nice sounding) outtakes, with tracks stopping suddenly before they really form themselves into proper songs, each one trying out something slightly different, all still within Mercer’s general sonic wheelhouse.
This collection is significantly quieter than Blackout Beach’s great album from last year, Fuck Death (TMT Review), but it makes for an enjoyable and brief listen, with tracks averaging just under the two-minute mark. Check out the stream or fire up the ol’ PayPal account and get to payin’ what you will.
• Blackout Beach: http://www.myspace.com/blackoutbeach