Blast Radius - Define, Redefine

Australia has been kind to us lately. Distaudio, Bitch Brigade and Dark Essence Radio have been 3 of the finer things that have come from the nation - at least from an Alternative music perspective.

Hoping to scale the dizzying heights of the podium is young musician Lachlan Hessing, known by the project name "Blast Radius". This project blew me away when I heard the track "Sight Unseen" from the Surge&subside compilation - dedicated to the Queensland Floodings of 2011. The track is a lengthy Instrumental opus, starting off with some slow Piano and slowly playing out a super-long, graceful Guitar Solo. Excellent.

"Define, Redefine" precedes this release a bit - when this was recorded, Lachlan hadn't yet acquired a Guitarist for the project, and was finding his feet as a young musician. The deal-breaker probably comes with the fact that this album is deliberately instrumental. If you require vocals with your music, you'll be uninterested in acquiring this, which is a bloody shame.

Shakespeare once said that "A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet..." - in the case of Blast Radius, no other name seems fitting. It's like someone fired a shell into a Drumkit and the reverberation was recorded. At least, that's how "Just One?" sounds to me. It isn't Power Noise, but find me a better niche to file it under. The next track "There Never Is" isn't segregated from the previous, and they fall together without any hiatus. I love it when tracks do this.

Guitarist or not, Lachlan has a natural ability to produce music with an epic, timeless feel, and the way the instruments blend in, and the sorrowful and abrasive melodies they play can almost portray a tragic history.

There's so little to say about Blast Radius when the music just needs to be heard, but with ideas like "Only To be Caged Again", and the astounding ambience littering this release, I have to tip my hat to this gentleman.

I honestly cannot see how vocals would add to this music - although they're always welcome, this is just so complete and full of direction, that any attempt to add vocals would likely ruin it.

An experience, from start to finish, and one that makes me wonder how much further music can be taken before it starts to become a Journey. Jul 06 2011