Close your eyes and enter into your own fantastical abyss: the secret hub you escape to when your friends catch you crossing galaxies as your head is in space. As you day dream, play Blood Cultures newest release, “Happy Birthday”, and I am willing to bet that the two lands match as perfect as jigsaw puzzle pieces.

Blood Cultures is an alternative band from New Jersey. Their sound can be defined as electronic indie dream synth pop. Their newest project is made up of just 12 tracks that cover a range of musical variances.

I can see why they named the project “Happy Birthday”. Their intro track, “Scenes from a midnight movie” sounds like a static celebration put in slow motion, and then sped up through a 70’s electronic turbo vortex. Near the end of the vortex we reach the theatre where the scenes from a midnight movie begin to play. The transition from “Scenes of a midnight movie” into the next song, “Inside”, is ingenious. I will not lie, the ring scared me for a second: I thought my phone was glitching and a stranger was inadvertently about to pop out of my screen. Luckily, it was just the works of clever music making.

     From the jump, it is clearly evident that Blood Cultures put a lot of work into making this album. Each song title fits their essence consistently. Although there are vocals within their music, I commend them for ranging between incomprehensible whispers to brief mini versus with strong storyline objectives. This allows the listener to focus more on the high quality and orgasmic quality that their overall sound produces over anything else.

My favorite song within “Happy Birthday” is the song “Indian summer”. It has a pop quirkiness to it with a splash of funk. The rest mirrors the vibes of 70’s dance music. When I listen tot it, my whole body internally lays back and relaxes into itself. I also enjoy the voice manipulation that exists in the song that follows, “Phospholipid”.

Overall, this album is great backdrop music, dance music, and getaway music wrapped in one. This album puts a nice spin on EDM, and I recommend it to all new listeners young and old.