BLXPLTN – ‘ZZEERRO (Dying for You to Get Rich)’

Austin’s BLXPLTN have taken their music and weaponised it to show  that the unthinkable is the new normal. Their inspirations include the likes of Dead Kennedys among others, and their genre-bending sound owes as much to Ministry, and Big Black. Rather than taped up guitars and drum kits that have seen better days, BLXPLTN wield drum machines and synths to the very edge. Latest track ‘ZZEERRO (Dying for You to Get Rich)’, is hard nosed and feisty and, as described by Fader, “working-stiff punk…that makes me feel like punching someone in the face.”

Finally it seems that we’ve reached the point that Punk has been telling us forever is going  to happen. And BLXPLTN takes that Punk urgency and applies it to their music. ‘ZZEERRO’ came about because TaSzlin saw something horrible on the news first thing one day – and this has become the norm, it’s an everyday occurrence now. He immediately went into the studio and wrote what is now the first single from their latest LP, ‘PhlegmTV’. The track bangs out the gate with feedback and megaphone vocals, but when the chorus drops we get some real melody in amongst the chaotic rest.

The video is trippy, to say the least. Half animation, half rotoscoped colour inversion, it bangs hard and fast at us, with TaSzlin an unsettling close up, focusing on his mouth. It would be gory if it wasn’t an animation: an axe cuts a man in two; rifles blow kisses, and a cult bows down before a tv. Old time cartoons intersperse the line-drawn animations, giving some relief to the horror.

If the clip has shocked you a bit, then BLXPLTN have done their job. You’re still alive, and your feelings show there’s hope.

Find out more about BLXPLTN on their official website. Watch the video for ‘ZZEERRO (Dying for You to Get Rich)’ below.