San Francisco Music Blog

Blues Control @ The Hemlock

​

In terms of cringeworthy musical clichés, stating that "the blues" is a state of mind ranks near the top of the list. Thankfully, Queens-based duo Blues Control gets into the best kind of headspace possible: that of a total mindfuck. The band crafts woozy, inscrutable, seemingly endless instrumentals on one guitar and a keyboard (and sometimes an old drum machine), making music that always seems to be unraveling, at once hypnotizing and confounding. Built up from tape loops or primitive electronics, the guitar oozes and flares, never quite settling into a pattern, while the piano seems to be everywhere at once, underpinning the proceedings while also taking them further out.

The band's third album, Local Flavor, is its most coherent yet, at least in terms of the duo's aesthetic sensibilities. "Good Morning" opens things up with a frantic lo-fi drum machine before moving into a fuzzy guitar outburst. The deft piano accompaniment expands upon the melody. A touch of layered brass caps off this lo-fi boogie-glam hybrid. Ambient loops and murky melodic excursions waft in and out of focus throughout Local Flavor, culminating in the mesmeric 17-minute smog of church organ and fried guitar on "On Through the Night."

Read the full Blues Control profile here, and check out the band live at the Hemlock (9 p.m., $7)