Optic Sink Glass Blocks
- Format
12 Inch LP
Black
£20.00
‘The ghost will find us, it all catches up, to remind us, that life is enough’.
Optic Sink return with their second full-length, a follow-up to their 2020 self-titled LP. Analog synthesisers provide a surprisingly warm sonic bedrock, embellished by sparse, taut guitars. Pulsing bass lines interplay with crisply programmed drums to create a hypnotically danceable underpinning. Natalie Hoffmann’s (also of Nots) vocals are, for the most part, austerely detached, occasionally segueing into a hauntingly sombre melodicism, as the power of repetition is deployed to wonderfully insidious effect. Ethereally allusive imagery of light and reflection, dream and memory form the lyrical fulcrum.
Expanding on the magnetic, minimalist post-punk frontier first chartered on their 2020 Goner debut, Optic Sink return with their second album, Glass Blocks. Hot on the heels of their recent EP on Spacecase Records, the Memphis trio of Natalie Hoffmann, Ben Bauermeister, and Keith Cooper ventured out to Lawrence, Kansas to record at the home studio of Caufield Schnug (Sweeping Promises).
The resulting seven originals and a rendition of LiLiPUT’s A Silver Key Can Open An Iron Lock, Somewhere define Optic Sink and their remarkable style with a clarity and power seldom realized in a studio setting. Hoffmann and Bauermeister command the high end of the mix with a gamut of perfectly dialed synth and percussive tones while Cooper’s bass serves as rhythmic anchor. There’s far more to dive into, whether it’s the cold, driving beat of Modelesque or the minimal, percussive brilliance heard on Glass Blocks. Perhaps the best part of the formula is the sheer amount of natural energy that gleams through the mix. Like a warm refraction of musical chemistry and originality, Optic Sink have struck gold with Glass Blocks.
—Feel It Records
