September 2023.
Memphis synth punk without the trash-stomp garage-rock abandonment many have come to associate with that Tennessee town, Optic Sink cold and calculated as an Akron robot typing messages on an electric teletype, cracking a Moroder power-line like a Morricone bullwhip, but still analog warm and organic as skin on a knuckle, a brass-knuckle sandwich electricity into your ear, twisting up the knob on the space heater to warm up the vacuum tubes and cold space suits hanging in the back of the garage, Natalie Hoffmann (Nots) vocals, guitars, art w/ Ben Bauermeister (Magic Kids) drums, and Keith Cooper (Jack Oblivian and the Sheiks, I assume), bass. Loads of synth electricity filling the sounds, like icicles on slate rooftops, strong and fragile, sharp and melting, dripping mineral water on fluorescent lamps and power circuits, Hoffman's guitar and Cooper's bass helping pulsate the rhythms into your ears, exotica percussion and electro funk mixed with bits of early mid-60s secret agent elbowing its way into the sound, shards of spaceage rock piercing into the skin, all the sounds wound up tight and the band working together wonderfully, twisting rhythms into your eardrums like wires wrapping around glass power pole insulators ... surrender and let Optic Sink knot their rhythms around your ankles and up and down your Frankenstein spine, let go of the railing and bop your noggin like the heads of the Peanuts dancing away the holidays...become a puppet riding on the pulse and electricity of Optic Sink. -- winch
Expanding on the magnetic, minimalist post-punk frontier first chartered on their Goner debut, Optic Sink return with their second album, 'Glass Blocks'. Hot on the heels of their recent EP on Spacecase Records, the Memphis trio of Natalie Hoffmann, Ben Bauermeister, and Keith Cooper ventured out to Lawrence, Kansas to record at the home studio of Caufield Schnug (Sweeping Promises). The resulting seven originals and a rendition of LiLiPUT's "A Silver Key Can Open An Iron Lock, Somewhere" define Optic Sink and their remarkable style with a clarity and power seldom realized in a studio setting. Hoffmann and Bauermeister command the high end of the mix with a gamut of perfectly dialed synth and percussive tones while Cooper's bass serves as rhythmic anchor. There's far more to dive into, whether it's the cold, driving beat of "Modelesque" or the minimal, percussive brilliance heard on "Glass Blocks". Perhaps the best part of the formula is the sheer amount of natural energy that gleams through the mix. Like a warm refraction of musical chemistry and originality, Optic Sink have struck gold with 'Glass Blocks'.
Produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Caufield Schnug in Lawrence, KS
A Silver Key Can Open An Iron Lock, Somewhere originally written and performed by LiLiPUT
Album art by Natalie Hoffmann
