Blood Music

A couple of years ago I picked up a lot of early Sub Pop 7"s, and it has hugely shaped my listening habits ever since. I have discovered a lot of new bands which are all really old, defunct bands. But it continues to be a fun journey, as I picked up forgotten albums for £10 that clearly nobody really knows or cares about anymore. Which brings me on to my latest find...

One of the 7"s I picked up in 2024 was a two song 7" by Green Magnet School. I wrote 'I've enjoyed this record and would definitely seek out more by this band.' So here I am doing just that, with this copy of their debut LP 'Blood Music'.

First observation is that the front cover is pretty terrible. I mean, not only is the picture a mess, it's also thw wrong shape, so there then ends up being thick black borders down the left and right side. This was also only pressed on black vinyl, with most copies having black labels. Aesthetically, there is not much going on of interest.

There's also an insert with photos of the band members, which I like because they all kinda look like they're in different bands.

The band is described as an 'experimental rock band'. I'm not really sure I agree with the term 'experimental', but it's certainly difficult to pigeonhole. At first I was disappointed by this record. It seemed different to the 7" which vaguely reminded me of Helmet. This was a more challenging listen at first. The songs all felt a bit long, and it sounded a bit like a noisy AmRep style band. But after giving it more of a go, I have really come around to it. It's definitely not an instant hit and takes some time to appreciate it, but now I am at a point where I like it more with each play. It's an interesting record for sure. There's a song where they sound a lot like Placebo, which sounds really different when it kicks in, but which I absolutely love.

The moral of the story is that you shouldn't judge a record by its cover. Oh, and that the 90s was by far the best era for music... but we already knew that, right?