Ekko Astral - pink balloons [Cassette]

The debut longplayer from Washington, DC-based Ekko Astral is a complex mesh of bubblegum noise punk and no-wave art rock that holds an elastic space for the knotty, tangled horrors of living in the imperial core. Their songs thrash with intense, necessary defiance against codified gender-based violence, their distortion and sibilance a direct response to the dangers outside our front doors.

pink balloons opener head empty blues specifically bites back against the terrors of the normative male gaze that dominates so much of American culture. Over a post-punk passage that plays call and response with a wall of harsh noise, frontwoman Jael Holzman belts playfully morbid details of the head-exploding anxieties that haunt her daily: is it bon eye-ver or bon iver? / i dont care / ive got stalkers outside / not going out tonight / gonna sit and take pics / in my underwear.

Ultimately, Ekko Astral are here to uplift, a mission exemplified by the frenetic and bewitching pre-release singles baethoven and devorah, cornerstones of pink balloons in both style and theme. The former serves as a reminder to keep your larger than life personality in a world that wants to downsize you, where the latter proclaims urgent solidarity with missing and murdered people. Such crucial messages of upliftment are the foundation of pink balloons, and, by extension Ekko Astral, whose thrashing debut leaves no stone of solidarity unturned.

A1. head empty blues A2. baethoven A3. uwu type beat A4. on brand A5. somewhere at the bottom of the river between l'enfant and eastern market A6. make me young B1. sticks and stones B2. buffaloed B3. devorah B4. burning alive on k st. B5. i90 (feat. josaleigh pollett)

• Format Detail: Cassette, Four Panel J-card, Obi Strip [w/ download card]
• Format: Cassette
• Genre: Indie & Alternative