Bloodslide - Bloodslide EP (2021) Hi-Res

Featuring members of Protomartyr and Preoccupations, the post-punk supergroup’s debut is refreshingly blunt and ambitious.

Greg Ahee of Protomartyr, Mike Wallace of Preoccupations and AJ Lambert, daughter of Nancy Sinatra, have teamed up to form Bloodslide, a trio that just released its first self-titled EP on Friday. All four songs straddle the border between unhinged noise and shatteringly beautiful moments in an otherwise stark and occasionally dismal EP. The longest track, “MVP,” clocks in at a little over six minutes and features an almost post-metal or shoegaze beginning. Not the shoegaze that gets lumped in with dream pop, either, no, this is just music at its most hopeless, past the point of catharsis. Once Lambert’s voice enters, though, the tone changes, and remains that way until she sings “It’s been so long for so long,” and the hopelessness reemerges through a tremolo-picked riff from Ahee.

Ahee and Wallace take turns bludgeoning the listener with guitar-drum interplay in between Lambert’s impassioned near-yelling in “Trap Door.” Thankfully, the listener is granted solace in an Ahee chord progression reminiscent of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “The Passenger.” While Bloodslide arguably reaches more dismal points than Protomartyr, Ahee’s style still shines through in his perfect tone and rhythms he has so clearly mastered, and his playing fits in this setting. He also makes for a great focal point, as seen in the intro of “How Glad I Am,” the EP’s highlight and closer. The song features nearly two minutes of a guitarist saturating within his own walls of sound and emerging into the verse serving the song as any admirable artist is wont to do.

Bloodslide is an exciting first release for a band so seemingly settled into its sound. Credits might go to producer Sonny DiPerri, who produced DIIV’s Deceiver, a similarly heavy record. Regardless, fans of anything from indie rock to shoegaze are likely to find moments in this EP that are among the best released this year.