Blectum From Blechdom

Blectum From Blechdom was the female San Francisco-based electronic duo of Bevin "Blevin Blectum" Kelley and Kristen "Kevin Blechdom" Erickson (formerly keyboardist in Texas for Adult Rodeo, which released three albums), both former students at the Mills College.

The nine-song EP Snauses and Mallards (Orthlorng Musork, 2000), a madcap collage of psychedelic ideas replete with toy and cheap keyboards, and the album The Messy Jesse Fiesta (Deluxe, 2000) introduced their futuristic pop, that indulges in fragmented grooves and laptop-based harmony. The EPs Bad Music and Buttprints (Dial, 2000) and De Snaunted Haus (Tigerbeat6, 2000) collected material that was becoming even more surreal. The double EP Haus de Snaus (Tigerbeat6, 2001) includes two of these early EPs. Fishin' in Front of People (Phthalo, 2002) collects early live performances.

After the split, Blevin Blectum, who had already released Pirate Planets (Phthalo, 1999) under the moniker D84, released Talon Slalom (Deluxe, 2002) and Look! Magic Maple (Bleakhouse, 2004) which contain chaotic collages of beats, loops, samples and sound effects. The latter, for example, runs the gamut from the anti-techno dance Benadrilled And Taking On Water, whose real protagonists are the electronic noises popping up behind every beat, to the intricate drum'n'bass polyrhythms of Pelican Part One: 17 x 20, from mini-symphonies of musique concrete like Pelican Part Three: Extinction to the inane loop of Last Track, a tribal dance with a keyboard melody. These alter-futuristic micro-vignettes can be cinematic (like the perfect soundtracks for silent sci-fi movies Your Wish Is Taken From Granted), lyrical (As If Enraged), dadaistic (On The Rim Of The World) or violent (the industrial cacophony Ease).

Kevin Blechdom, relocating to Florida and then Berlin, released her first solo EPs, The Inside Story (Tigerbeat6, 2001), I Love Presets (2002), and Your Butt (Dudini, 2003), followed by the computer-pop album Bitches Without Britches (Chicks on Speed, 2003) that collects most of the EPs. The album sounds like a pretentious merry-go-round of madcap ideas, like a session between the Residents and Henry Cow.

A far more serious work than her debut, Blechdom's 19-song Eat My Heart Out (Chicks On Speed, 2005) evoked the feeling and the sunny melodies of the Kinks's rock operas (echoing everything from Broadway showtunes to vaudeville skits to Tin Pan Alley ballads). A manic energy permeates episodes such as Too Much To Touch. The album is a tightrope walk, a psychotic compromise between avantgarde electronic-dance music and vintage pop music, mixing post-modern elegance and post-industrial neurosis in one powerful antidote to the prevailing aesthetic mood.
Tracks: Coming, What You Wanna Believe, Invisible ROCK, Suspended In Love, Joke As Self Intro, Love You From The Heart, The Porcupine & The Jellyfish, Get On Your Knees, Runaway Or Stay, Are You Fucking With Me, You Got Yerself, Slow Me Down, Day To Day, There Are Other People, Johnny, Too Much To Touch, Torture Chamber, Songydong, Going To Sleep.

Blectums' Gular Flutter (2008) is the most well-behaved of her albums, and that is not necessarily good news. However, the orchestrations can still be highly creative, as in the case of the exotic fantasia Cygnet and especially the mad synth-pop of EmptyBottleStar. The pummeling beat at the end of Real Live Escargot might be exciting, but the lame industrial dance Foyer Fire doesn't go anywhere, and too many of the other pieces are mere cute sounds that don't quite coalesce It is a much less dadaistic work, probably trying to craft more accomplished compositions. Unfortunately, the result is more conventional music. The standout might be the least coherent of all these experiments, the chaotic clownish Flowers Fade Fast.