The spectacular Land and Fixed offers up the darkness and claustrophobic sound of The Cure and Joy Division with the energy and electro-pop shimmer of New Order. The songs are never too complicated. For all the sounds happening and all the different layers of distortion, Blank Dogs never loses sight of the immaculately crafted melodies and hooks that weave throughout the album. It’s also incredibly versatile.  Stand out tracks “Collides,” “Northern Islands” and “Another Language” can be listened to at home with a bottle of wine on a cloudy night; or in a sweaty basement dance party with everyone moving like Frankenstein being shocked to life.

With the throwbacks to the early days of New Wave and Post-Punk, Land and Fixed is full of songs that are instantly familiar. It is easy for an artist so reminiscent of a band like Joy Division to fall into the She Wants Revenge trap, to sound like a stale imitation of something great. But Blank Dogs miraculously circumvents this by creating music that is still interesting and, for lack of a better word, new.

One of the reasons Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is such a fantastic and iconic song is because you can hear New Order beginning to emerge from behind Ian Curtis. It’s a single song that inhabits a space between two groups, two styles; it’s the rumbling introspection of Joy Division with the manic energy of New Order. Mike Sniper’s Blank Dogs lives in that same world.

Conclusion: Fantastic and rumbling, this is the soundtrack to your next introspective dance party.