Blue Ocean, The

***Blue Ocean are Rick Altieri and David Stringi; long-time friends and former bandmates from the Boston acid punk band Puke. Since relocating and reuniting in Oakland, the two have been making two chord pop with layers of swirling noise and synth pads, backed by a pulsing drum machine beneath a mess of cables and hissing distortion. The pair craft a swirling haze of sound glazed over dreamy pop songs, leaving a shimmering electric roar and a slight grin. The duo merges shoegaze & noise pop to make a sound that is somewhere between My Bloody Valentine's You Made Me Realise era and C86 jangle leaving the listener to wonder what year it is. The Blue Ocean LP compiles their two most recent EPs: Summer Of Hands and Fade (previously released on cassette by the band and Paisley Shirt Records) mastered and cleaned up by Mikey Young.