Blindness & Light – Shards (2025)
Unwilling to conform and eager to reside in a place of pure freedom, at least when it comes to band structure, Blindness & Light is the informal collective creating music with absolute liberation. Bonding over a love for music, the UK-based band turns heads with their post-punk-driven tunes. Already a constant on The Other Side Reviews, Colin M Potter and his crew have entertained us with songs like ‘The Ballad Of Them And Us’, ‘We All Lose’, ‘The First Light Of Day’, and many more. Today, we take a gander and a listen to their most recent release, ‘Shards’.
Taken from their eight-track album I Dreamt I Had Insomnia, ‘Shards’ binds the talents of Colin Potter (lead vocals and guitar), Helena Doughty (cornet), Melisa Dopazo (bass), Glen Welman (drums), and Helen Reynolds (backing vocals) in a silvery concoction of music. Trimmed with various slicks of nostalgic rock, ‘Shards’ is a bold ribbon of post-punk entwined with classic rock, and a couple of indie-rock tints peaking from the background. Crashing drums, a powerful bass and soaring guitars wash over listeners with throbbing sounds; however, it is the shimmer of Doughty’s cornet that lingers in an off-kilter nod to post-punk.
Strongly influenced by The Velvet Underground and 80s post-punk tunes, ‘Shards’ revels in a cinematic soundscape. Yet, as much as there is an ethereal ambience, a burst of bold tones exists intricately binding the complexity of a rock band with the synth-like simplicity of open-air, laidback music. For me, Potter’s vocals are what lead this interplay of confidence and fragility with an airy, albeit slightly sinister tone. Reynolds’ harmonic backing vocals offer that little something extra, sprinkling the melody with fairy-like sparkles.
Melodically, ‘Shards’ is an intriguing listen, but it is the theme and lyricism that up the profound, poignant ante. Potter explains:
“This track is a dark love song about people who aren’t even happy in their own skin, just courting disaster. The throbbing floor tom drives it from its naïve beginning, where “it felt like we existed within a film”, towards its tragic end, where everything is totally decimated and the protagonist is left wondering if the world is still turning.”
Find out more about Blindness & Light on their official website, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Spotify and Bandcamp.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
Listen to more post-punk music on The Other Side Reviews Post Punk playlist:
