VACUUM - S/T LP - RED VINYL - NEW/ MINT

Australian cult duo VACUUM has been strictly a live performance project until now. Since 2013 Andrea Blake (ASPS/CHROME DOME) and Jenny Branagan (NUN) have fortified punk shows and techno dance floors alike with their own sensory brand of sub-bass, abnormal beats and mechanical scapes. You can feel their distinct sense for physicality throughout their anticipated self-titled debut album Vacuum, which was recorded and mixed by Josh Wells and mastered by Enyang Urbik in 2021.

Listening to Vacuum, a distinct feeling arises: Isn’t this fun? For all its psychic terror and bludgeoning, gut-punch sub-bass this is a record with refreshing, bristling wit. Its elliptical industrial songs apply a piquant buzz to contemporary experimental electronic music. This record is dead-serious, of course, but like the best creators of dystopian visions, VACUUM know that you need a touch of light to contrast with all that shade.

Mighty sub-bass, inspired by the rumbling exhaust pipes of muscle cars shudders through its veins; the body-moving dynamism of early Detroit techno is present both in “Dredd” and “Between”, leaning into Model 500 territory. The dead pan vocal delivery and razor-sharp soundscape in “I’ll Call You” and “Between” draws lineage from Anne Clark, ZE Records Cristina and the more recent incarnation of the disembodied vocal in Dry Cleaning. The slow stomp of “Resonate” showcases VACUUM’s versatility and affinity with the claustrophobia of underground 90’s hip hop producers like Mr Len and Spectre or Tricky's Pre- Millennium Tension Trip Hop. 

A stunning astute debut, these songs move in hypnotic circular grooves, complex engines kept in motion by weights and counterweights. Sleekly built but coarse in texture, VACUUM makes hard graft feel like a walk in the park.