Close your eyes and picture this scenario: you're floating in a body of water, with just the faintest of a moon beam failing in its quest to conquer a prevailing darkness. Like the Dead Sea, you're raised up by the salty brine and you seem to be the only living creature left on earth. There is an uneasy calm that envelopes you and you're almost powerless to move. That's the mental picture conjured up by the music of Trench Blank a Belgium band that is made up of the duo Bert Adriaenssens & Yves Haberkorn. There are hints of a less adventurous, more laid-back Deep Forest although the music is less world-beat, looking at more of a trip-hop vibe.The first cut on their self-titled EP is called "Little Boy" and a description of the song can be perfectly summed up by the above paragraph. Synths create an other-worldly environment that is augmented by the disconnected vocals which recall The Human League's Philip Oakley. The song is punctuated by a nice Floyd-like guitar towards the end.
"Conscience" sounds like a camp-fire-ish song with the synths giving way to a more organic acoustic guitar accompanied by some light hand percussion. The guitar does little to dispel the somber mood that was initiated with the first song.
"Wild Wild Heart" echoes the preceding cut to a degree but has a chorus that slightly bring to mind a hint of Steely Dan with the jazzy bent. "Henry and Mary" has a terrific vocal. Imagine if Tom Waits had a more melodic voice, you can hear him doing this song. Excellent chorus on this one. The record is rounded out by "Shrine of Another Fool" which is simply gorgeous. It's a song that couldn't quite be classified lounge but is not too far away from that.
Trench Blank is a band that is capable of affecting moods, whether it be to embrace you with a sensory blanket or to take you places of a most exotic composition (not in instrumentation but in aura). Either way, there are moments in most people's day that would benefit from a dosage of this excellent music. Let's hope the band makes this music available soon.
