these guys were awesome last night but was the standard shacklewell arms snoozy indie crowd. Determined to get them to a proper party
― straightola, Friday, 17 February 2012 16:34 (twelve years ago) link
Why did they leave the Robert Miles mix off the CD?? It's the best remix!
― mmmm, Friday, 17 February 2012 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrOGPSifmq4
― MikoMcha, Sunday, 19 February 2012 10:51 (twelve years ago) link
This album is fabulous. Some of the percussion lines are just classic.
― Tim F, Sunday, 19 February 2012 13:28 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, it's great. Been jamming to this all day. Some of the track I hadn't heard before. Love the fireworks crackling explosions on Amber.
Haven't made it to the remix disk yet, other than the Robert Miles track above, which I honestly had much higher hopes for.
― MikoMcha, Sunday, 19 February 2012 14:16 (twelve years ago) link
The Business/Pleasure pairing is absolutely perfect, and the rest is really solid too. Haven't got round to all the remix disc but I'm totally feeling the Bicep remix.
― boxedjoy, Sunday, 19 February 2012 19:52 (twelve years ago) link
This is officially the least stealable band name ever. They couldn't have made it any harder to find if they'd called themselves Paris Hilton Sex Tape.
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Sunday, 19 February 2012 20:19 (twelve years ago) link
This albums! So sweeping, so brooding! It strikes me as an odd coincidence that this and the Talabot album have come out at the same time because they both are like extended paeans to the build.
I think it's on "Pleasure" (though I may be wrong) where about halfway through this gorgeous piano riffing section emerges... while we're not in Marshall Jefferson territory by any stretch it still feels like this massive moment of rightness, like the entire universe has deemed this moment mandatory.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:07 (twelve years ago) link
This albums!
― Tim F, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
Lover is a great song, but Pleasure is where it really starts kicking off.
Do agree with this from the first post though:
But their best work is still "Moondance" from 2010
― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:28 (twelve years ago) link
I think the Blondes-Talabot link is so clear, they're very similar albums texturally as well as structurally.
― boxedjoy, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:02 (twelve years ago) link
ha, yea i was surprised at how well that robert miles remix turned out but i def wouldn't say it's my favorite of the bunch. the teengirl fantasy mix is p striking, and i'm also really feeling stirmonster's remix of "lover" that plays the melody from don cherry's "brown rice" against the original song's meredith monk sample.
this is definitely one of my favorite releases of the year so far, along with the talabot disc. i don't remember "pleasure" for the piano lines per se but more because of the somewhat unexpected lissvik-style balearic synth-guitar flourishes that pop up and make me sad that this is probably the closest we will ever come to another "life's a beach". tho that sadness quickly dissipates because it's an incredible track in it's own right
― psychgawsple, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:26 (twelve years ago) link
this album is LOVELY.
i have no idea how i hadn't even heard of them until yesterday when a friend recommended them in response to a "where is all the decent music this year" whinge - though a search did reveal that i'd just ignored the press email and d/l links a few months ago, presumably due to the boring name or maybe the douchey press release. this is so much more anonymous than i'd have thought and all the better for it
― lex pretend, Thursday, 23 February 2012 09:07 (twelve years ago) link
finally listened to this all the way through (via trans-pacific flight). It's really really nice, but I kind of wish it was a little more of a continuos, monolithic thing (instead of 8 separate tracks) it's like, so close. def one of the best things I've heard all year though.
gotta dip in to the remixes next.
― ⚓ (gr8080), Thursday, 23 February 2012 09:22 (twelve years ago) link
Do check out Touched if you haven't heard it yet!
http://open.spotify.com/album/7v19RUyMR3I1J2wOFsXZ0p
― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 23 February 2012 09:51 (twelve years ago) link
Great music, awful name
― Alexandre Dumbass (dog latin), Thursday, 23 February 2012 10:01 (twelve years ago) link
still need to hear the album in full. will rectify this today.
― Alexandre Dumbass (dog latin), Thursday, 23 February 2012 10:02 (twelve years ago) link
I think "Gold" is my favourite track at the moment but they are all so so so good. Just marvelous.
― Tim F, Thursday, 23 February 2012 12:06 (twelve years ago) link
i think it's a great name and also cannot recommend the live show enough, it was awesome
― jabba hands, Thursday, 23 February 2012 12:12 (twelve years ago) link
Actually maybe I mean "Wine".
― Tim F, Thursday, 23 February 2012 12:13 (twelve years ago) link
they all sound pretty much the same so you probably mean both
― lex pretend, Thursday, 23 February 2012 12:16 (twelve years ago) link
In fact I just checked and I do!
― Tim F, Thursday, 23 February 2012 12:22 (twelve years ago) link
Absolute top tier: "Business", "Pleasure", "Wine", "Gold".
So close as to barely matter: everything else.
― Tim F, Thursday, 23 February 2012 12:25 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, Wine is my fave.
― MikoMcha, Thursday, 23 February 2012 12:25 (twelve years ago) link
Absolute top tier: "Business", "Pleasure", "Wine", "Gold"
Do they have other tunes called 'Yachts', 'Cocaine' and 'Secretaries'?
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Thursday, 23 February 2012 13:16 (twelve years ago) link
Actually, each of the original 12" gathered together in the album was arranged by a ying/yang theme: lover/hater, business/pleasure, water/wine, gold/amber.
― MikoMcha, Thursday, 23 February 2012 13:26 (twelve years ago) link
^gets the concept
― ⚓ (gr8080), Thursday, 23 February 2012 17:58 (twelve years ago) link
cocaine/secretaries
― flopson, Thursday, 23 February 2012 19:47 (twelve years ago) link
cocaine/ketamine
― lex pretend, Thursday, 23 February 2012 19:49 (twelve years ago) link
action/romcom
― ⚓ (gr8080), Thursday, 23 February 2012 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
gr8080/lex
― Tim F, Thursday, 23 February 2012 22:11 (twelve years ago) link
...
― MikoMcha, Thursday, 23 February 2012 22:15 (twelve years ago) link
Now I'm loving this. Between this, Todd Terje and the new John Talabot, the house scene is really spoiling us.
― Alexandre Dumbass (dog latin), Thursday, 23 February 2012 23:02 (twelve years ago) link
So far it's the opener, lover, that hits me most - that gapped chanting with all the reverb on it - inspired programming!
― Alexandre Dumbass (dog latin), Thursday, 23 February 2012 23:04 (twelve years ago) link
That's a sample from a Meredith Monk piece btw.
― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 23 February 2012 23:13 (twelve years ago) link
http://s1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee461/ruthsaxelby/?action=view¤t=MM_Blondes1.jpg
l-r: Meredith Monk, Blondes
― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 23 February 2012 23:17 (twelve years ago) link
well shit, that didn't work
― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 23 February 2012 23:19 (twelve years ago) link
The Bicep remix is on repeat at my house - awesome album from start to finish
― skip, Thursday, 23 February 2012 23:20 (twelve years ago) link
Really enjoying this, it's very 'Days of Mars' with added acid house revivalism, not what I expected at all.
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Friday, 24 February 2012 12:55 (twelve years ago) link
siiiick album
― max, Friday, 24 February 2012 17:16 (twelve years ago) link
I am very slack in not listening to this, it seems.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 24 February 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
im into this also, for the record
― johnny crunch, Friday, 24 February 2012 17:24 (twelve years ago) link
The Wine-Water pairing is definitely my favourite. Wine sounds like Layo & Bushwacka's Love Story refracted again and again and again, it's such a corny everyone-hug-each-other dancefloor moment but it completely works.
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Friday, 24 February 2012 21:28 (twelve years ago) link
solid albumif you press play, no return allowed
― moullet, Saturday, 25 February 2012 15:44 (twelve years ago) link
"a little more chill, a little more swirly, a little more… stoner-y?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0r1oDPO3g
― MikoMcha, Saturday, 25 February 2012 16:42 (twelve years ago) link
There is also a 'boring' video for the track Amber.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiBWBCgH8Ok
― MikoMcha, Monday, 27 February 2012 08:53 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tr4mGR36RQ
kids these days
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 28 February 2012 03:16 (twelve years ago) link
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Friday, February 24, 2012 12:55 PM (1 week ago)
^^
― etc, Friday, 2 March 2012 11:47 (twelve years ago) link
There's something about these guys that reminds me of one of Lex's posts from last year where he was wishing for a dancier version of Emeralds. They don't quite have that depth or complexity to their sound (and heck, no Mark McGuire in the band either), but maybe this is a manifestation of that sort of way of thinking?
― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Friday, 2 March 2012 11:56 (twelve years ago) link
Picked this up last night.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 2 March 2012 12:04 (twelve years ago) link
Awesome!
― forevermore (a maven) (Matt P), Saturday, 7 September 2013 19:52 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, so they were really great. Oceanic. Like Arthur Russell, 90's trance ('taking you on a journey') mixes, Porter Ricks...
Played versions of stuff from the albums along with more open-ended jams. Elise was an obvious highlight.
― MikoMcha, Sunday, 8 September 2013 10:52 (eleven years ago) link
Would have liked to hear them tackle Wine, but no dice.
― MikoMcha, Sunday, 8 September 2013 10:54 (eleven years ago) link
starting to think Swisher is the best thing they've done. picked up the vinyl + digital over the weekend. it really is deep ... Porter Ricks reference is otm but they bring melody into it too.
on track 2 when it gets into that high shrieky buildup of static toward the last third of the track ... wow.
― dmr, Monday, 9 September 2013 16:39 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah that's amazing. I think the album is better the more stentorian it gets, even if it's just because it's difficult to top the debut in the melancholic sweeping grandeur stakes.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 10 September 2013 01:27 (eleven years ago) link
been revisiting both lps a ton this winter. "andrew" is so completely lovely
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, 16 February 2015 18:48 (nine years ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/igetrvng/blondes-rein
why yes, I'll take a mix of your unreleased new stuff
― harold 'smoke' budd (haitch), Wednesday, 24 June 2015 07:11 (nine years ago) link
not as a frickin cassette though, mind
― harold 'smoke' budd (haitch), Wednesday, 24 June 2015 07:22 (nine years ago) link
rein is brilliant
― lex pretend, Saturday, 18 July 2015 07:10 (nine years ago) link
The section from around 32min to 41:30 is crazy.
― MikoMcha, Sunday, 19 July 2015 14:10 (nine years ago) link
New record 'Warmth' out 11th August!
'KDM' streaming on their bandcamp now:
https://blondes.bandcamp.com/album/warmth
― Steve Reich In The Afternoon (Against The 80s), Tuesday, 20 June 2017 14:12 (seven years ago) link
^^^^ out today, enjoying it so far
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Friday, 11 August 2017 10:38 (seven years ago) link
really good blend of prettiness + intensity
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Friday, 11 August 2017 10:45 (seven years ago) link
oops it does get progressively less pretty, back half reminds me of silent servant - that same sort of voyage into the darkness
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Friday, 11 August 2017 11:22 (seven years ago) link
oh i'm finally getting around to this and those three nickb posts are very encouraging
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 September 2017 16:59 (six years ago) link
wow this is really really great
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 September 2017 17:47 (six years ago) link
I totally forgot to add to the enthusiasm of NickB after playing this. It's not got anything as good as "Elise" on it but I think this might be their best full album yet.
― boxedjoy, Wednesday, 27 September 2017 22:37 (six years ago) link
their best since their self-titled at least
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, 28 September 2017 02:47 (six years ago) link
Elise is a total classic track
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Thursday, 28 September 2017 03:25 (six years ago) link
New album is amaze, but I find it interesting how much its concision feels like a reaction to the expansive drift of Rein. There’s something almost “right, let’s get to it” to the way they start and finish the tracks.
Also feels very “if you only buy one Blondes album...”
― Tim F, Wednesday, 4 October 2017 10:55 (six years ago) link
i could live in this album
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, 4 October 2017 15:50 (six years ago) link
falling in love with "wine" all over again
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Friday, 22 February 2019 18:04 (five years ago) link
warmth is still so sick
revisited the blondes catalog this week, what a body of work
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 15 November 2022 17:56 (one year ago) link
It really is.
One of my favourite albums of this year is Puscha’s Etterath, which despite being less beat driven has a very pronounced Blondes feel.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 15 November 2022 20:35 (one year ago) link