by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Last week I talked about Ukrainian post-punk band Bichkraft's new single "Ashley" in our "Fuzzy Meadows" feature but the quartet have been busy. Since then they've shared a new music video for the single and have announced a remix EP (separate from their new EP coming early next year) featuring the likes of House of Feelings, Nick Klein, Horoscope and more, all offering their own take on "Ashley" and Bichkraft's uncompromising blend of industrial, shoegaze, post-punk, and noise rock.
It's a rare occasion that I find myself compelled by a remix, but then again, it's a rare occasion a band like Psychic Blood is as the helm. Which brings us to Bichkraft's "Ashley (Psychic Blood Remix)," a track we're thrilled to premiere from the upcoming digital EP, due out Saturday, November 19th via the always impeccable Wharf Cat Records. Psychic Blood, for anyone unfamiliar with the Brooklyn via Western Mass band began as a rather blistering noise punk band who have since honed in their freeform lo-fi squalor in favor of a more progressive and slightly more developed squalor. Basically, they ripped when they first started and they rip even harder now... only with a stronger sense of focus.
"Ashley" a song we said "feels like mutant shoegaze, roaring between distorted manipulation and reverb guitar lines" gets peeled back on Psychic Blood's remix, stripping the song's density in favor of an ominous aura built on pounding beats and whirring synths that focus as much on space as they do noise. The terror is real as the song's attack is spliced in and out of the serene soundscapes, pushing and pulling the source material in all directions. There's an understanding in Psychic Blood's reimagining of "Ashley" as they tear through the layers and recreate it with an effectively cold and stark new sound.