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When I first saw the minimal black & white cover artwork of the ‘City We Love To Hate‘, I thought that this might be the case: Reminded of some golden-era post-punk covers of 1980’s. So at least, I could fall in love with this, if not the content itself. Dimitris Kazakos is the man behind the distinctive, beautiful cover of Blame Canada‘s (nothing to do with the Washington DC based Rush tribute band) debut release; An Athenian quintet which has formed since 2014, and managed in the  last days of 2016 to let out this rough, beautiful piece of art.

What you are going to listen, if you dare press play on their Bandcamp page, or even better purchase the limited edition tape, is passionate music, pumping influences from  “British post-punk, American indie rock, shoegaze and psychedelic rock” with a truly engaging voice spitting words like there is no tomorrow; Lead vocalist Marinos Georgiopoulos isn’t afraid to ‘crumple’ his persona in order to achieve the optimum result, and in moments reminds us of some of the most outstanding bands of the early post-punk era. Needless to declare that the rest of the band comports ideally with Marinos.

Back to the album, this consists of 9 tracks, all of them well above the average but if you wanna learn about the highlights there you have them: The instrumental, epic 7 minute slow-burner ‘Be‘ manages to pair shoegaze, cinematic, psych and post-punk leading to an unforgettable crescendo donating goosebumps to the unsuspected listener, while ‘For A While‘ is like an 80’s forgotten, lost gem that resurfaced in 2017 to do justice with a catchy as hell refrain to singalong. In other words, the group in glorious form, unafraid to express itself… Simply exceptional.

Taking into consideration that ‘City We Love To Hate‘ is the very first outcome of Blame Canada, let’s hope for some great moments in the near future. After all, this might be indeed the soundtrack of the ‘city we love to hate‘…

Revisit:

Blame Canada interview

Christos Doukakis