Album Review: Blank Realm - Illegals In Heaven

Blank Realm really shouldn't be this good. Even the title of this record from the Brisbane band, Illegals In Heaven, seems to suggest the band themselves still don't believe they belong in the critical spotlight they've innocuously found themselves standing under. They claim to have started as something of a joke seven years ago, making improvised noise together without any careerist ambitions or thought for the future of the project. And yet, through their slew of early releases there was a sense the band was slowly creeping towards something truly individual and unique. That's the background to the fuzzy, intoxicated edge in Blank Realm's sound, which continues to evolve on Illegals In Heaven, their fifth major release and first studio album.

If there was ever a single anthem that transmitted their mission statement, the opening track, No Views, is the perfect candidate. Simultaneously frantic, manic and irreverent, Daniel Spencer succinctly distils the band's approach to music in one hilarious couplet, "I've got no views on it/It's just something that I do." Luke Walsh's ripping guitar solo shreds any doubts that they're kidding, sounding sharper and meaner than before. The band's shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later approach is complemented by fellow Brisbane producing legend Lawrence English's treatment of their aesthetic, bringing a fuller, thicker sound that still keeps all the scrappy messiness of their Flying Nun influences. Experimental tendencies and pop experiments combine in one glorious amalgam of sound, making for another instant classic in the band's catalogue.