HEAR THIS: BLUE OCEAN

Oakland’s Blue Ocean have announced their self-titled debut LP, out 4/16 on Paisley Shirt Records. It’s a compilation of their last two EP’s: 2019’s Summer Of Hands and last November’s Fade, mastered and cleaned up by Mikey Young.

The duo, Dave Stringi and Rick Altieri, known from Boston punkers Puke, fall nominally under the rubric of shoegaze, but never forget that one of the foundational tenets was discovering the beauty that lurks in noise, not just swirls of reverb, as evidenced on “Elude”.

The serrated glory of “Summer Of Hands” and the melodic immediacy of “Lava” showcase the outfit’s yin and yang, while motoring bass lines give a propulsive heft throughout, notably on “Emporium”. The essence of the band is in how they can drop a casual classic in the form of “Maggie’s Bind”. Once live shows resume again, this is a band we’ll be on the lookout for.