Bright Black Heaven

'Balancing two bands is a complex task...one shines and the other simmers. Now it s time for Blaqk Audio to shine.'

Well, well, well. Never one to mince words, Jade Puget recently issued the foregoing statement not as a justification, but as a rallying cry. Puget and AFI band mate Davey Havok are ready to debut Bright Black Heaven the sophomore offering of their electronic brainchild Blaqk Audio, and as far as they are concerned, September 11th could not arrive soon enough.

Blaqk Audio, for all its artistic spontaneity, however, did not emerge ex nihilo from the AFI either. Rather, the band's origin lies in Puget & Havok s collective penchant for electronic dance music a taste that, for both musicians, dates to the heyday of the electro-industrial wave: that never-never(again) land of the late 1980s. Bands like Skinny Puppy, Depeche Mode, and Nitzer Ebb were among the first to colonize the musical territory of Puget's mind; meanwhile, Havok steeped himself in the soundscapes of The Pet Shop Boys, Devo, and Front 242. Their artistic and professional commitment to celebrated multi-platinum rock juggernaut, AFI, however, left Puget & Havok little time to indulge their electronic itch.

'Jade and I never considered Blaqk Audio to be a side project,' Havok reflects. 'As with all our artistic creations, we care about it deeply.'

The transition between Blaqk Audio's freshman debut, 'CexCells', and their recent offering 'Bright Black Heaven', has elicited well-deserved buzz among the tastemakers of the industrial underground. Never reluctant to illuminate their artistic impulses, Puget and Havok provide context for this evolution. 'Thematically, 'Bright Black Heaven' is an expansion of 'CexCells' hedonistic agenda,' notes Havok, his tongue implanted partially in-cheek. 'As a producer, I'm constantly evolving as my skill set changes. So there are some marked changes from 'CexCells' on this album,' Puget continues. 'But many of the nuances of Davey and I writing electronic music together will sound familiar.'

Picking up where 'CexCells' left off, 'Bright Black Heaven' features a dozen well-wrought tracks that defy any stale adages about quality and quantity. 'I feel that the album title perfectly captures the tone of the record,' Havok suggests. 'The songs shift from high-energy dance anthems to mid-temp pop to dramatic ballads that focus on transcendence and escape through the shadowy corners of bliss.'

The musical current linking Havok and Puget has already revealed itself as a fountainhead of inspiration and momentum. Now rolling, Blaqk Audio gives us no occasion to expect pause.