What's in the water in Oakland? There's a lot of good bands from there bubbling up now. Or, in the case of Blue Ocean, roaring up. Putting paid to the idea that the best new acts on Slumberland Records are more Byrds-y, Fertile State is noisy and fuzzy. It feels like something that would have earned comparisons to the Swirlies in earlier ages, and it's still the sound of now.
"Elated Prose" careens around the room like "Teenage Riot". The blurred vocals are a nice touch, and the whole disheveled bliss of the thing feels very familiar, and very easy for me to love. While "Neutron Mob" is more abstract, the roiling title cut is the real deal. Heck, I'd even venture to say that these musicians listened to Whorl on some of this label's old sides and comps! It's a tune with a certian throwback appeal, though the energy with which it's played doesn't suggest a casual embrace of this form. At all.
Fully realized and thoroughly engaging, Fertile State by Blue Ocean is one of the better albums of this sort I've heard lately. There's a sense here that the players are pleasing themselves first, and I respect that. This gives a listener like me what I want, but it's not so easily put forward. There's complication in the crunch, and nuance in the balance between noise and melody. "Ion Drift" is damn beautiful, for example, even as it churns like parts of the best Pale Saints records. And "The Radiant Edge" takes things further, mixing vocals so far in the mix as to seem like they're from outer space. Those give this, despite the copious feedback, a real ambient edge, as if Seefeel amped up. The whole record is inventive like that. Blue Ocean could have delivered some easy pleasures here, but they (thankfully) complicate things and up-end expectations of what -- ahem -- shoegaze can still be in 2023.
Fertile State by Blue Ocean is out on Friday via Slumberland Records.
[Photo: Blue Ocean / Slumberland Records]