BLUSH RESPONSE breaks any silence with his new album, EGO DEATH
Just one day before his new album EGO DEATH dropped, I met up with Joey Blush—aka BLUSH RESPONSE—alongside my comrade Iulia Magheru for a conversation that quickly moved beyond machines and modulars.
The full interview will land soon on unklar.net, but until then, here’s a look into the heart of EGO DEATH, Joey’s latest and most personal sonic mutation.
After several full listens, I can say this with confidence: EGO DEATH doesn’t sound like anything else out there. Sure, it lives inside that harsh, jagged architecture we associate with industrial—crushing kicks, metallic grit, tension. But it pulls in far more: post-punk ghosts, punk-rock scars, IDM complexity, guitars that screech and spiral like nervous systems collapsing… and, maybe most surprisingly, Joey’s own voice.
It’s raw, melodic, sometimes almost tender—like Marilyn Manson melting into Deftones and Nirvana, filtered through pure Blush chaos. It brings a deeply human edge to his usually ultra-mechanical universe.
BLUSH RESPONSE – EGO DEATH
So, why EGO DEATH?
The title has multiple meanings,” Joey told me. “One is exposing myself in a new way—you know, I was hiding behind the synths for so many years, and now I’m really putting myself out front. Taking off all the armor.”
The second meaning—well, if this completely fails, then I’ll experience ego death again,” he laughs. “But it also refers to how other people view ego death, how they talk about it as something everyone has to go through. Those are some of the themes I explored.”
Joey doesn’t chase genres, and Ego Death proves it. It’s not a product of formulas—it’s built from instinct, impulse, and emotional honesty.
I don’t want to stick to a genre or a sound. I don’t like when people are like: ‘OK, today I’m making techno,’ and then they look up the rules on how to do that,” he said. “I wanted my own sound—and whether that comes across or not is up to the listener. But I think it’s pretty unique. I just wanted to experiment with things I felt were fresh: my crazy electronic sound, 8-string guitars, and again—my voice. And different ways to process my voice.”
Ego Death is a body of work that feels wired to something urgent. It refuses to sit still, refuses to conform. And most of all—it dares to be vulnerable in a genre known for armor and noise.
[Coming soon: our full interview with Blush Response, only on unklar.net]
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