Ian Blevins is the keeper of the jewel in the crown. This is his second offering for the ESP Institute. Picking up right where we left off, side A unleashes another explosive big room belter with Resumé—a driving rhythmic monster that takes advantage of the whips and cracks in Ian’s drum machine arsenal, while warm chords lay a foundation for a quirky lead melody and rubbery pulse to dance upon. Akin to Hannibal, Blevins‘ ESP Institute debut in 2015, the arrangement here toys with us before revealing the true guts of the track—this time characterized halfway through by a punctuating gangster piano hook. On side B, Poor Old Head utilizes Ian’s signature drum styling we’ve come to adore, but here he establishes swells of melancholy via bending notes that meow and purr, beautifully ebbing and flowing though an array of incongruous dial tones and bells—shakey and barely out of sync, yet cradling a loosely drawn chord progression.
These two songs will smack you up before they rub you down.