The absolute madlad has finally done it. After years of grinding production, one (1) whole live performance, and more bong rips than you could imagine, blank effort is ready to share the news of a Debut EP titled “Shed Your Teeth”. The titular track starts dark and scratchy, yet eerily groovy before delivering a warm layer of vocals that leave the spine tingling and lead ones teeth to shed. I’ll let the video do the rest of the talking.
Shed Your Teeth EP is sure to make you shriek, whether that be from fear or pure exhilaration. This heart-pumping eight track journey feels reminiscent of Bloodborne to me in a way — ominious, yet awaiting to infect each person that dares enter its world with a desire so bountiful for it to permeate forever.
Tracks like Jeanson’s Escape offer the listener a brash and abrasive wave of squealing guitars, gut punching percussion, and topped with apocalyptic vocals that could be delivered from an ever-sentient robo-being.
Meanwhile, Take Em Out!!! Do It!!! sonically evokes what it would feel like to have ones upper intestines ripped out and turned into Yo-Yo String, or at least that’s what it does to me. Yet I’m still eager to have what used to be my bowels bounce up and down the dancefloor, strobe lights streaking across the room as my teethless corpse decays in the back of the greenroom.
I got a chance to sit down with Jed, the driving force behind blank effort, to further understand what this new EP means for the future, what obstacles have come in the way of creating this project, and his mindset while going into the recording process for it.
“this whole album is a bunch of old like improv recordings… i don’t think a single song was made new for it”
Jed — blank effort
I was appalled to find out these songs weren’t made for a project in mind, but rather the opposite. He elaborated,
“newest would be like drink up phillip but that was like dec 2020… no album planned for them at all, they kind of just came together”
Jed — blank effort
One of my favorite moments across the EP is track 7, simply titled 33. Despite its scrawling run length of 37 seconds this track hits every itch in the brain while still leaving so much more to be desired. It’s roots in post-punk and hardcore and easily prevalent, while structurally it hits like a ringtone. Ultimately, it’s a masterclass in not only sonic assembly but rhythmic structure. When asked about the song, Jed said
“that song was randomly found, barely remember making it or writing it. everything was recorded too”
Jed — blank effort
Yet again, i’m found baffled by the evidence that lay in front of me. When people say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that allows for anything to be loved — even the smallest sidebars in the sketchbook can be made larger than life when interpreted by the world. Oh, Joy!
Shed Your Teeth EP is currently only available on bandcamp (for free), and there are plans to distribute this project to streaming services a-plenty.
EDIT(3/15): Shed Your Teeth EP is available on all streaming services 🙂
Be sure to keep an eye out for blank effort, playing their first acoustic live set on April 1st, 2022 @ Strand Studios in Hackettstown, NJ.
