Seattle-based Blue Glass is a perfect example of how lovingly the Pacific Northwest was inspired by the original post-punk movement, and how that magnificently noir, yet romantic energy still influences sounds made here.

Blue Glass is basically Michael Shunk, and he’s readying for the release of his second album, Pale Mirror, which arrives on May 24th. The nine tracks he’s intimately crafted for this LP show his synth-kissed adoration for brittle and funky anthems, vividly recorded and mixed to tape at legendary Earwig Studios in Seattle, with lush mastering by veteran Levi Seitz at Black Belt.

Pale Mirror is full of timeless, melodically melancholic, delightfully ecstatic odes to anomie and obsession the recalls the output of bands like The Chills, early The Cure and The Church, and Aztec Camera, and Seattle acts from the ’80s like X-15 and Life in General.

Shunk, who also plays in the critically acclaimed band Transient Songs, grew up in the Midwest and has roamed up and down the West Coast before settling in Seattle. Pale Mirror gets its title from Shunk’s feelings about the Pacific Northwest in the winter, when the LP was recorded and he was in a period of self-withdrawal and reflection (longtime topics for musicians in this area).

The Big Takeover is extremely pleased to host the premiere of the atmospheric and restless opening track “Sleep”. A continually loping pace guarantees no repose as the low-end bass line runs in tandem with a lively, wiry, and burnished guitar line

The actively smacked and slightly echoed drum beat is accentuated with the ticking tap and sporadic shimmer of cymbals. The sonic turmoil is bolstered by the extended press of tense synths and contrasted by Shunk’s coolly dispassionate vocals.

Blue Glass will be going on a West Coast tour after the album is released in the spring, and through the summer, for a concentrated couple of weeks from Ecotopia to Southern California.

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