BLESSED
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR W/ STUCK KICKS OFF THIS WEEK
ANNOUNCE ANYTHING PHOTOBOOK: PRE-ORDER HERE
+ NEW LIVE VIDEO: WATCH / SHARE
NEW ALBUM CIRCUITOUS OUT NOW VIA FLEMISH EYE:
LISTEN / SHARE
Press Photo By Sebastian Buzzalino
Progressive rock band Blessed hit the road this week with Stuck in support of their latest, avant-rock gem Circuitous – which is available now via Flemish Eye. This time around Blessed bring their jaw-dropping live experience across Canada, down the West Coast, Texas, Chicago and more. See below for a full list of dates and grab tickets here.
Circuitous, the band’s second full-length is a rich, moving and committed piece of work that expands on their eclectic discography. Blessed have sharpened their strengths, bringing everchanging depth and expansion to their song craft. The result is a sweeping, hyperreal, industrial art-rock tragedy, rendered in walls of noise, controlled drums, meandering ambience, and staccato syncopation.
The album’s artwork is the band’s most ambitious step into the visual world to date. They teamed up with longtime collaborator, digital artist Nathan Donovan and Jacob Dutton, to direct and design all original art and videos for the record, centering on a nameless, childlike robot that embodies very specific, subtle and uncanny expressions. The robot appears on the record’s cover and in their recent video / visuals for acclaimed singles “Redefine” and “Anything”.
Today Blessed announce their photo and art book, ANYTHING, which gives fans a high quality look at the imagery and process behind Donovan and Dutton’s creation of Circuitous’s artwork. ANYTHING is a 9×12, 58 page collection with a moving forward by Ariel Esteban Cayer titled “Do Androids Dream Of Greener Pastures?”. The book comes accompanied with a digital copy of the album. Preview the book here and for more information or to pre-order it, go here.
Pulled from hours of jam material and hundreds of demos, Circuitous’s eight tracks sprawl and thrash and burst and fall, sometimes for nearly eight minutes – lyrically speaking to agoraphobia, isolation, grief, the hyper-control of capital and the numbness it breeds. Blessed recorded Circuitous during winter 2020-2021 at Vancouver’s Rain City Recorders with Matt Roach and Emily Ryan. The record was mixed by John Congleton (Swans, St. Vincent, Wye Oak) and mastered by Greg Obis (Alabaster Deplume, Cloud Nothings). The group experimented with two different drum setups, eventually blending the two within a single song. The record builds on Blessed’s commitment to creativity, introducing more synthesizers, programming, MIDI, sequencers, and experimentation in arrangements.
Following the release of their live recording for album standout “Trust”, Blessed share “Anything (Live)” – the second installment of their Circuitous live sessions. The series captures the band live at BNB Studios and No Fun Club in Winnipeg. Watch it below.
WATCH / SHARE “ANYTHING (LIVE)”
LISTEN / SHARE CIRCUITOUS HERE
OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEOS: “ANYTHING”, “REDEFINE”, “AGORAPHOBIA”
BLESSED LIVE DATES:
All Dates w/ Stuck
Nov 17th – Winnipeg, MB – The GoodWill
Nov 18th – Saskatoon, SK – The Black Cat
Nov 19th – Calgary, AB – Palomino
Nov 20th – Edmonton, AB – The Aviary
Nov 23rd – Vancouver, BC – The Red Gate
Nov 25th – Seattle, WA – Clock Out
Nov 26th – Portland, OR – High Water Mark
Nov 28th – Sacramento, CA – The Starlet Room
Nov 29th – San Francisco, CA – The Knockout
Nov 30th – Los Angeles, CA – Gold Diggers
Dec 1st – Long Beach, CA – Alex’s Bar
Dec 2nd – San Diego – The Comet
Dec 3rd – Phoenix – Valley Bar
Dec 4th – El Paso, TX – Mona
Dec 6th – Austin, TX – Hotel Vegas
Dec 7th – Denton, TX – Andy’s Bar
Dec 8th – Fayetteville, AR – Smoke And Barrel
Dec 9th – St Louis, MO – Heavy Anchor
Dec 10th – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
Early Praise For Circuitous
“It’s nuanced music that can sit amongst the mainstream without rattling listeners. Blessed are making complexity sound accessible, which is never easy.” POST-TRASH
“Moody art rock connoisseurs Blessed have made a graceful return… buzzing, atmospheric disassembly of bootstrap theory.” NEW NOISE MAGAZINE
“‘Circuitous’, in its sound, design and roundabout nature, takes the long way in lifting listeners to its new ways of seeing.” 8/10 EXCLAIM!
“The tension between its stunning ambient melodicism and rhythmic tug-of-war creates something that feels beautifully unsettled” TREBLE
“‘Circuitous’ is an exemplary art rock album with much power and edge, a meditative progression of music that gets you into your thoughts as much as it gets you out of your head.” MXDWN
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