Itโs Called Blood, the new album by Seattleโs Jesse Damm under his project It Sound, arrives via Seahorse Recordings as a full-bodied plunge into psych-post-punk murk, messthetic grit, and hypnotic DIY atmosphere.
Released digitally and on vinyl, the record draws on the raw lineage of Londonโs post-punk underground while carrying the windswept tension of the Pacific Northwest. Dammโs sonic palette leans into cavernous bass pulses, towering guitar distortion, and collage-like textures that feel handmade yet fiercely intentional. Visually, the album is paired with Pascal Le Grasโ striking artwork, the same mind behind iconic covers for The Fall and The Jazz Butcher, adding a primal edge to the recordโs already feral landscape. And while It Sound is largely a one-man creation, the album expands through unexpected collaborations, including a dub-tinted duet with Caithlin DeMarrais of Rainer Maria, mastering by the ever-chaotic experimentalist Weasel Walter, and intimate vocal contributions from Dammโs children, Yana and Lukas.
The album opens with โClean Feet and a Steady Beat,โ creating a catchy, restless rhythm with shaking percussion that feels like loose bolts rattling in a tunnel. Melodic, shimmery guitars chime over an immersive sonic haze, while Dammโs voice barely surfaces above the ambience, with a ghostly presence threading through the swirl.
Later, the dub-leaning โIn Between the Seas,โ represented here in its Lectric Sands remix, shifts into something more shadowy and hypnotic. It begins with melodic guitars and snapping beats before breathy whispers flicker at the edges. Strong, churning guitar riffs rise like fog over an industrial shore, and Damm sings lazily, almost resigned. When he repeats โI am ready now,โ it lands less like surrender and more like a dare, like a moment suspended between defiance and dissolution.
The closing โItโs Called Blood (reprise)โ deepens the albumโs meditative tension. Atmospheric textures drift like smoke while hard, sudden beats punch through and guitars fuzz into a thick, driving hum. Damm sings slowly and reflectively, as though piecing together the remnants of everything the album has unearthed. Itโs a brooding final breath. It comes spacious, aching, and strangely tender.
Across its thirteen tracks, Itโs Called Blood is a transmission from a restless mind tunneling through memory, noise, and instinct. Itโs a vivid, uncompromising release that cements It Sound as one of the more intriguing voices in the experimental post-punk resurgence.
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Review by: Naomi Joan