Blanko’s forthcoming album is titled “Entelechy” (defined by Webster’s dictionary as a “realization of potential”). Indeed, & as an album mission statement, this might be Joe Hall’s 10 year post Hammer No More the Fingers national to hyper-local “buzz & fizzle” fulfillment on the intrinsic songwriting & musical talents possessed by the guitarist/vocalist commandant; yet still with the usual HNMTF alums in tow; roles repurposed (bandmates Jeff Stickley & Duncan Webster both commit drum duties). Rounding out the collaboration collective are fellow Durhamite Canine Heart Sound’s Matts McElroy & Peterson (on bass & guitar respectively). But more central to Blanko’s newfound production & songwriting process has been producer “JLa” Jon Le Sueur (of LiLA fame) – a colleague & staple of Durham’s 2000’s-2010’s music scene turned “semi-recluse super producer” who helmed the first Blanko Basnet album in 2013 among a slew of others since. Hall’s reunion with JLa is a particularly fruitful one, as the duo wrote & recorded these tunes in just a few pent-up flash post-pandemic jam sessions, ultimately muscled into a 10 song LP. It is in these juxtapositions that we see the 2024 Blanko Basnet at the peak of their powers – streamlined & sincere, if not lyrically brutalist, coupled with their next iteration of dizzying guitar-work and rhythmic theatrics; though still ultimately not unlike what Hall and other collaborators have channeled on past HNMTF & Blanko endeavors.
