Description
Born from the grinding sound of tectonic plates and the celestial music of the spheres, Translucent Blades is both raw and exposed—one moment surviving on the power of a single riff, then swelling to the sounds of a catastrophic planetary devastation. Heavy psych doom-outfit GRIN deliver an experience that is both soothingly spiritual as well as intensely carnal.
The nature of music performed by duos rests on a stylistic paradox that has been endlessly fascinating to listeners throughout the history of modern music. There is a particular focus to songs produced by solely two entities which makes them powerful and coherent, but at the same time there is a certain vulnerability in having merely two artistic perspectives and just two musical voices on stage. All in all, being in a duo simply raises the stakes in an artistic sense, it being make or break when it comes to the quality of the music.
With their heavy psych doom-outfit GRIN, the Berlin-based musicians and power couple Jan and Sabine Oberg (of Earth Ship renown) purposefully embrace this paradox, creating music that is both raw and exposed. Sometimes surviving on the power of a single riff, then swelling to the sounds of a catastrophic planetary devastation, the band’s sophomore album takes cues from diverse styles such as post-metal, grunge and shoegaze.
Being recorded in Jan’s own Hidden Planet Studio in Berlin, this album is the pure product of two minds working together. In contrast to their debut album, which was written and recorded in just one week, Translucent Blades was granted a more gradual birth, leading to an album that portrays an effortless dynamic between two musicians honed to perfection.
With its combination of sludgy riffing and etherial ambient sounds, Translucent Blades seems to be born from the grinding sound of tectonic plates and the celestial music of the spheres, while tribal drumming and persistent drone notes take the listener both deeper and higher. Like the migration trajectory of stardust—coming from the outer reaches of space to form the minerals in the earth’s crust – GRIN have created an experience that feels meditative and psychedelic, both soothingly spiritual as well as intensely carnal.
