Permahorn, the upcoming indie rock duo comprised of Saint Pauly and Jexy Pesic, haven't been around very long, and certainly haven't reached the level of appreciation they deserve yet. The couple of singles that preceded their debut album though were enough to make heads turn their way, and get us excited with their utter charm and seductiveness.
Heavy both production and feeling, Permahorn's debut album, My Blood Carries My Dreams Away, does not hold back neither the feedback nor the fuzz nor the band's abilities of putting their exquisite influences to great use, disassembling them and putting them back together, filtered through their own singular, classy and ultra noisy lens.
My Blood Carries My Dreams Away was mixed and mastered by Kramer, the veteran producer whose work so far includes collaborations with top acts like Galaxie 500, Bongwater, Daniel Johnston, Half Japanese, Shockabilly, Butthole Surfers, Low and more.
"The songs were initially an escape from what was going on around us," the duo shares with us about the creative process and add: "They gave us a chance to create something when everything else was falling to pieces. As well as being an outlet for the howling frustration and seething anger at the time. But when Kramer got involved it took it to another level. We are huge Shimmy-disc fans and love the mood of bands like Low and Galaxie 500 and Bongwater. So it wasn't just in terms of professional mixing, but he very much nurtured the idea of a coherent overarching body of work. A piece of art. I think he always envisaged a collection of songs - and always a physical thing, an album - and we began to see the cadence and mood of the whole piece as we worked on each track. So we'd share demos, listen to what we had produced and wrote and recorded new stuff to fill in the gaps. In the end we had to drop a few tracks that didn't quite fit, so there's a dozen or so in the pipeline for the next one already..."
With such a set up and such a title, it is only fitting that we should have expected an album as dark and sinister as My Blood Carries My Dreams Away indeed is. Still, the band's songwriting wit outweighs it all and exceeds all expectations.
"The album seems dark - the songs came out as very bleak. But we hope the joy sneaks through. Because the process was cathartic. Writing, recording and getting all of this stuff out was an exhilarating experience. Working with Kramer was surreal. So it was a dark time round about us, but we retreated to a little enclosed space of creative comfort. Listen carefully and there's a lot of hope there."
Give it a close and loud listen, as the album streams in its entirety for the first time ever right below...
My Blood Carries My Dreams Away releases December 1st via Shimmy-500.
ZR