The cover of All Around Surround is a light pollution map of Florida tilted against a featureless black backdrop, a visual that gels with the album’s tensely coiled post-punk and driving percussion-imbued indie rock dosed in lightly experimental ambiance. The first proper solo release from Mrenc (the pseudonym of Lakeland-based New Granada Records artist Eric Collins, of the late Dark Romantics) carries dark dissonant notes, from the chorus of calling vocals, percussive chugging thrust and guitar-jangling urgency of lead-off single “The Architects” (video below), to the stripped-down closer “Cover Me,” made up of strummed guitar, swirling ambient sonics and Collins’ echoing layers of vocals. (Critic's rating: 3.5 stars.).
Mrenc – The Architects (Official Music Video) from Bend Films on Vimeo.
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2013.