(photo: Dopplereffekt last Saturday at the Metro, Chicago, by me)

THERESA SMITH/ERIC CECIL “Blinded Eye” / “Body in Revolt” / “Headsick Twin” DLs (self-released)

This year’s output from some longtime outerborough residents. Both Theresa Smith and Eric Cecil have significant dents on the wall of NYC’s makeshift venue scene (Smith as Home Blitz’s heroic shredder during Big Dan’s most fruitful period, Cecil from garage bands of the before/during/after Termbrocalypse in The Busy Signals, LiveFastDie and on those Quietus records on Ever/Never). The two of them had a short-lived noisy band called Ballroom with Australians Kristian Brenchley and Steven Fisher, and Smith wrote a fave piece of experimental fiction entitled L, but here they are at a remove from band life or scene life, building microstudies in songwriting over the past few years. Releases are limited to these seven songs over the past three years, uploaded to Bandcamp at a name your price level of magnanimous engagement. “Blinded Eye” finds a dry Camberwellian notion of sustained tension, guitar and bass overdubs with their voices in unison just above the fray, working itself into the argument their serene voices won’t let them have. “Body in Revolt” is even better, adding a rhythm track and an attack that pulls as much from the Byrds as it does Scorched Earth Policy. The most recent track “Headsick Twin” is the most rhythm-forward, kind of a central European folk tune plunked out on hand percussion and given in to bluesier stings on the guitar as the central melody weaves in and out. These two are onto something yet again, but it’s entirely theirs and they set the level of engagement, kind of a rare notion in music these days. The only identity latched onto this is their own.

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