Pfork Name Checks Art Fag in Blank Dogs Review

Weighed against the well-received On Two Sides, released by Troubleman Limited, Blank Dogs' second full-length is more colorfully composed, without straying too far from Brooklyn's increasingly popular ragged-reverb aesthetic. Admirers of Crystal Stilts and Vivian Girls, in particular, will already have a soft spot for Sniper's particular flavor of pop deconstruction. (As of 2008, you can even call them labelmates: the recent Blank Dogs EP The Fields was released by Jeremy Earl's Woodsist Records.) Where Vivian Girls sand their sharp, discordant edges with harmonies, and where Crystal Stilts shower rain over sun-kissed 1960s pop, Sniper veers off in a different direction. There's a temptation to slander these family resemblances as hipster herd thinking; given the obvious sense of community across labels like In the Red, HoZac, Art Fag, of like-spirited musicians collaborating and ideas cross-pollinating, the truth is brighter. The emotions, of course, are darker. In Under and Under, especially, today connects to yesterday through Sniper's abiding love for the overcast moods of post-punk and the gloomier regions of new wave.

(Pitchfork)