BLOOODHOUND – happpy ending
BLOOODHOUND – happpy ending – Album Review
Ohhhh man, here we go…gonna have to battle Microsoft Word’s spellcheck all the way through this review. Fun.
On the bright side, the music of BLOOODHOUND happens to always be worth any extra aggravation in that regard…this is some of my favorite stuff to listen to from the underground scene of the internet, and if I gotta crawl through glass just to get to it, I probably would. It’s been about…what…a year and a half since I first got the opportunity to listen to her music back in 2021? It was an EP called R.A.T. that I remember specifically had me hunting all over the internet for more details on BLOOODHOUND’s music, and managed to find exactly none after spending all day long poking holes into the internet. The same basically applies now, though there is an Instagram page you can check out. It won’t tell you anything concretely, and the BLOOODHOUND mystery still continues, but there are things you can look at that might give a smarter person than myself some clues as to what the heck is going on with all this audible awesomeness. I just know what I like & love to listen to…and I wish I could listen to BLOOODHOUND all day, every day. This new album happpy ending, which Microsoft Word is determined to spell with just the two ps, is nothing short of absolutely killer from start to finish. As far as my ears are concerned, I think I’ve yet to hear anything from BLOOODHOUND that is anything less than completely incredible.
Is it gonna be for everyone? Fuck no! Look at the artwork – you know that it’s not gonna be for the typical mainstream crowd. I wish that it was though…my world would be that much more awesome if music like what BLOOODHOUND is creating came my way every day. Still, having said that, I suppose I probably appreciate it that much more because of the rarity that it genuinely is, and her authenticity.
She makes music that hits different for all the right reasons, and that’s the facts. It’s purposely dark, intentionally random, and entirely addictive – the advance single/first track “FAKE life” would be enough to convince you of all that to be true. Where a project like LoFi Chill exists to give you a somewhat welcoming version of this style of sound, BLOOODHOUND basically thrives upon daring you to listen. The results all speak for themselves though…if you’re among the bold folks out there willing to click on a record with creepy-ass artwork like happpy ending has, I can only guarantee that you’ll love what you find. From the BIG-ASS bass in the mix, to the thought-provoking use of spoken word samples and what’s being said, like “I think I should do it more often…you know…be myself” – you’ve gotta love the decisively unique music being made here, even if the concepts and meanings are far beyond our understanding or comprehension. I never profess to have any idea of what drives the mind of an artist like BLOOODHOUND to do what they do, I can only tell ya that you’d have to physically FIGHT ME to get me to stop listening to an album like this…and I’ve got my dukes up y’all, come at me. BLOOODHOUND is my spirit animal & the music would be my choice for my own personal soundtrack – I love this, 100%.
My role becomes a unique one here…because you don’t advise an artist like BLOOODHOUND, you just fucking STAND BACK and simply encourage creativity like this to continue at all costs. As I sat here and listened to “sunsett,” I’ll admit…YES there’s a part of me that would absolutely love to know more about who in the all hell BLOOODHOUND really is and what makes her the person/artist that she is, and then of course there’s the other part of me that naturally wants to help protect and preserve the mystery of her music as best I can. “sunsett” takes a seriously dank turn towards the end, diving straight into the theme of knowing things you probably shouldn’t know, and/or the possibility of death lurking just around the corner…and that is…fuuuuuuck…what else can I say other than that is SO VERY BLOOODHOUND to go in that direction and make us wonder. Like…it’ll fucking keep me up at night, you know? SHOULD I be encouraging and enabling this, or am I supposed to take a different stance for the sake of some notion of safety & whatnot? All I can tell ya for sure is that the art & kickassery of BLOOODHOUND’s music will outlive us all, no matter what happens. “Pay attention to all the factors and all the cues that are all around you, that are telling you to listen.”
It’s all like a fever “dream” when it comes right down to it…BLOOODHOUND has a gift of warping our sense of reality, until we don’t really have an idea of what is or what isn’t real. It’s “harder for people to see me as a person” you’ll hear in the spoken word loop in “dream” – and I’m not really sure what else to say other than BLOOODHOUND don’t exactly make it all that easy to see anything clearly, you know? For all I know, BLOOODHOUND could be AI in action…we’re not all that far removed from the time where we won’t be able to truly tell, you follow me? Personally, I absolutely love the randomness you’ll find in these songs…like how she was talking about the Gameboy-like wallpaper in “sunsett” to the conversation about apparel in “dream” – you really have no possible hope of trying to figure out what it actually all means, but there’s also no question about how enjoyable it all actually is to listen to as well. So if you ARE an AI robot BLOOODHOUND, congratulations, you’ve got me…you’ve managed to figure out the exact type of music that I’d pretty much wanna listen to around the clock on any given day of the week. Do androids dream of electric sheep? I honestly have no fucking clue – but I bet they sure wish they have a soundtrack like this. I don’t know it for a fact, I just know it to be true – so believe it.
“rotor” flies by quickly at less than ninety seconds in total length. As with all-things-BLOOODHOUND, you might be lucky enough to catch pieces…snippets here & there…things that MIGHT give you some kind of clue as to what’s really going on. And I wish you the best of luck with figuring anything out, I truly do! I know I’ve given it my best college try, and I’m still coming up super short in that regard – but to be fair to myself, BLOOODHOUND ain’t really interested in helping us, so much as willingly creating more of a maze for us to wander within, searching for something that might make sense. Maybe it’s just me…maybe I’m so incredibly old now that I simply can’t wrap my mind around whatever is attempting to be said, or maybe confusion is the point. “I like it when your character kind of looks like one thing and it’s the total opposite on the inside” – that’s a quote you’ll hear towards the end of “rotor,” and to me, that’s probably the spoken word sample that is speaking the most directly about what we actually hear. Ultimately, I think BLOOODHOUND has created this like…fearlessly artistic version of herself, and likely uses that as somewhat of a shield or a barrier between us and the person she is in her normal everyday life…and if that is the case, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it. Whatever y’all can do as artists to tap into your true creative freedom and be who ya wanna be, you know I’m freakin’ here for it. Again, if it helps an artist like BLOOODHOUND create records like happpy ending, then you’ll find no complaints from me.
I’d be the first to admit I get caught up in the mystery of trying to figure out what makes an artist like BLOOODHOUND tick…and I think she knows that’s how we’re all gonna react by the way she chooses to thread the spoken word samples into her music – BUT…I really should spend a second or two explaining how damn gifted she is when it comes to the craft in her production as well. No joke folks, we can spend a lifetime trying to figure her out, or we can spend literal seconds on the surface of it all without digging into the mystery of her music, just realizing how damn good it sounds. Yeah it’s freakishly dark, but even when you’re listening to a track like “maerd” for example – it’s practically only as dark as it is because she masterfully allows our minds to fill in the blanks. She leads you in these crazy directions that somewhat force you to provide the missing pieces through projection, and it’s nothing short of brilliant if you ask me. Maybe there’s someone out there that hears her music and they’re convinced she’s the happiest artist out there in the scene today, because they can’t perceive the darkness or aren’t willing to go down that road, you know? Maybe describing BLOOODHOUND’s music as dark at all, is simply because that’s the way that I hear it…but maybe it’s not at all. All I know is this – listen to the way things are assembled, put together, and produced…she’s BLOOODY BRILLIANT if you ask me. I don’t think we need to completely ‘get’ everything at all…in fact, I think the fact that we don’t/can’t is a large part of the allure of listening to her music. “maerd” is a fantastic mix of beauty & curiosity in the main melody, intentional deviance through the whispers in the background & spoken word samples, and a psychology degree contained within it all. Even just writing out my thoughts on this record probably tells someone like BLOOODHOUND a lot more about me and the way I think than the other way around, you feel me? It’s almost like she’s taken our natural love of eavesdropping and listening to other people’s conversations, and then added that to music that’s inherently addictive. From the texture to the tone, she creates material that clings to your bones and can’t help but fully entice you in to listen at the same time. It’s gives you that feeling you get when you realize you’ve been listening in to someone else’s private conversations…and you know that you probably shouldn’t be, but keep on listening anyway. Again, maybe that’s just me. Maybe I’m creepy that way. It’s who I am and I make absolutely no apologies for it. I listen to LIFE in the same way I listen to music, and try to experience all that I can.
Case in-point, the production on a track like “sunrise” shows the uncanny level of genius she takes to the studio boards and the strength of what she’s able to create. Because lemme tell ya folks…the level of DAT BASS is as amazing and awesome as it gets. Even the most experienced producers out there would spend days & weeks trying to wrestle a sound like that underneath the red line in order to achieve the sheer sonic clarity that BLOOODHOUND has laced into “sunrise” – and I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of’em would still fail if you did a side by side comparison to the results. This is like a…Four Tet level of audible awesomeness y’all…and I say that with the utmost respect. From the way things are chopped up and melodically strange, to the depth of the production, to the powerfully engaging way that the music becomes something we can’t take our ears off of – nor would we want to – I’m tellin’ ya folks…a record like happpy ending is something you have to experience for yourself to get what I’m talkin’ about. Now…I suppose there’s probably an argument to be made that “sunrise” might have a bit less of what we might typically associate with the BLOOODHOUND recipe for stranger things…but that’s still not to say that what you’ll hear is anything typical whatsoever. It’s a track that’s probably just less dependent on the spoken word/vocal samples we’ve been hearing throughout the record, and instead, this time around, any vocalizations we hear added into the mix actually end up acting like an essential part of the melody & movement of the song. On a compositional level, “sunrise” is as freakishly cool as the rest without a doubt; it just happens to make its moves in a different way than the rest of the songs.
“REAL life” is a mind-blowing collage of just about everything I love about BLOOODHOUND in one dose. It’s the finale cut in this set of seven, and it’s another remarkable snapshot of her tremendous musical deviancy. At the start, hell, you might even assume she was about to lay down a ‘normal’ track of some kind, with natural vocals that sound gorgeous at the beginning of “REAL life” and a title to this song that almost implies she’ll head in that direction for a moment. But no – of course she won’t. If you’re expecting her to go right, she’ll go left. In fact, if you’re expecting this artist to do anything you’ll expect at all, then you’re expecting the wrong things. “You see things, and know things, that people don’t share with others” – she’s practically a clairvoyant y’all…and her true gift is knowing how to make music move you in the most bizarre ways. “I understand if you’re nervous” – and maybe you should be. I’m starting to think that BLOOODHOUND making music almost opens a window into OUR souls as listeners more-so than it might give us any tangible insight into her as its creator, you following me? It’s like she’s creating her own portals into who we are by exposing us to her music. I’ll tell you this much though…I don’t know who is singing at the beginning of this song or if it’s really BLOOODHOUND for a definitive fact – but whoever that is, has one seriously incredible voice and a music career waiting for them anytime they want it. Maybe it’s someone that’s already famous…I honestly don’t know…but if they’re not, they should be. For what’s merely a tiny fragment of this song, that voice at the start makes an extraordinary impression on us. As for the rest of “REAL life,” obviously it’s awesome. The intentionally distorted melody…the strange spoken word samples…the unpredictable nature of the way that BLOOODHOUND makes her music work so damn well…good gravyboat lighthouse y’all…she’s nothing BUT amazing and at ALL of the times. happpy ending is an experience you gotta have this year, a record that I’ll certainly keep on spinning, and a triumph for the dark side of music that proves how cleverly irresistible it can be.
Stay connected with BLOOODHOUND at Instagram by following her page right here: https://www.instagram.com/blooodhound
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