Casual Blood Service is a lo-fi Indie project, shrouded in as much mystery as their debut single is in tape hiss. Recalling the melancholic grace-via-ambience of Grouper and Alvvays, 'My Secret Friend', despite its relatively truncated runtime, creeps up on the listener in its subtle C86 jangle.
As befits the hauntological ether conjured up by the ever-present cassette drone and cavernous, soul-searching swathes of reverb, the song seems to exist in its own gently spinning void; a 35mm vignette that revels in its own perceived mundanity.
Of course, it isn’t that simple. The lyrics pick at the surface layer skin of a relationship or friendship, where the narrator "wish[es] [she] could be mad" at the other person, but just cannot muster it.
Why this is, we aren’t told: but this, along with the exclamatory tape stop at the track’s close, only enhances its personal and spontaneous nature. It becomes almost like an audible diary entry, the windswept guitar runs and distant drum machine a musical construction of our voyeuristic journey inside the narrator’s thoughts.
'My Secret Friend' is a highly impressive premiere from an artist that could very well be the next ascendant to the lo-fi throne.
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