Blood Orange: 'Coastal Grooves'

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. View the original here.

Shifting between aliases and musical projects can either be seen as the result of a restlessly creative spirit or a lack of direction. One man who's already worked under more musical incarnations than Bowie is Dev Hynes: whether sowing the seeds for the short lived nu-rave scene with The Test Icicles, making grandiose pop statements as Lightspeed Champion, or lending his production prowess to everyone from Solange Knowles to Florence Welch, his musical choices have been as varied and bizarre as his wardrobe. Blood Orange is his latest solo project and you can't blame someone for approaching this album with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation.

While his last solo release, Lightspeed Champion's Life Is Sweet Nice To Meet You jumped between genres so consistently that it bordered on schizophrenic, Coastal Grooves arrives more fully formed. While you can unearth fragments of music from the last 30 years scattered across the album- the genre cross-pollinations of Blondie being an obvious touchstone- there's never a sense that Hynes is trying to replicate a specific sound. The singer claims he drew inspiration from the 'identity blurring work of transgender icons such as Octavia St Laurent’, and he seems to have achieved a newfound confidence by embracing the ambiguity allowed by an alter-ego, alluded to by switches in the gender of the vocalist across the LP.

While it comes as no surprise that Hynes has turned to the indie and funk of the 80s for inspiration (let's face it, in 2011 it would be more surprising if he hadn't) it's easier to hear his music filtered through the raft of other acts that have mined similar influences in recent years. Opener 'Forget It' exhibits the rhythmic strumming and straight jacketed percussion re-popularised by The Drums, while lead single and album highlight 'Sutphin Boulevard' echoes The XX's 'Intro' in its simple but insistent bassline, stomping drum beat and reverb-laden guitar; the soundtrack to late night prowls through red light districts. Meanwhile Hyne's voice alternates between the pained earnestness of Bloc Party's Kele Okereke on 'I'm Sorry We Lied' and the seediness of early Prince on closer 'Champagne Coast', his enticements to 'come to my bedroom' managing to be both sordid and seductive.

As its name suggests, Coastal Grooves was put together in both New York and LA, a polarity reflected in tracks like 'S'Cooled' and 'Instantly Blank (The Goodness)', where dirty East Coast grooves are married with the laidback, buoyant guitars of the golden state in a bizarre union that you would only expect from an alienated Brit abroad. With a restless spirit like Hynes it's hard to tell whether or not Blood Orange is just another moniker that will be discarded in favour of the next fad, but it's a musical path that I would happily follow him down a little further.

The Horrors: 'Skying'

A review I wrote for FACT magazine. View the original here.

Does anyone remember The Horrors circa 2006? Prancing on stage in thick eyeliner and Beetlejuice haircuts armed with an extensive knowledge of psychobilly and a cover of The Sonics’ ‘The Witch’, they acted like the audience were the only ones not in on the joke. Only after being signed by XL and releasing the Mercury-nominated Primary Colours in 2009 did anyone outside the NME bubble begin to pay attention. Well, clearly the joke’s on us: with their third album, Skying, the Southend-On-Sea band have completed the transformation from goth pastiche to one of the country’s best guitar groups.

Skying isn’t so much a departure from Primary Colours as the logical next step. A more abrasive record, you can still hear the group’s past influences, namely the post-punk of Strange House on ‘Endless Blue’ and the krautrock and shoegaze of Primary Colours on ‘Moving Further Away’ and ‘Oceans Burning’ respectively.

They also draw on new ones: opener ‘Changing The Run’ and ‘Dive In’ have a baggy swagger that makes sense of their support slot for Primal Scream’s Screamadelica show back in June. The confidence and efficiency that they apply to straddling genres is never more apparent than on ‘Endless Blue’, which opens as an introspective instrumental of plodding bass and reverb-drenched guitar before switching tempo into breakneck grunge, like an early ’90s Sub-Pop 7″ played at 45 instead of 33.

Single ‘Still Life’ is almost too anachronistic for its own good, channelling the spirit of Once Upon A Time-era Simple Minds so effectively that it’s surprising they haven’t breached some sort of copyright. However in a culture that sees cliques of bedroom producers trying to re-construct tiny corners of the ’80s musical landscape, it seems unfair to denounce a bigger band for attempting the same.

Self-produced in their home-built Dalston studio – a daring feat when you consider that their previous album was overseen by Portishead’s Geoff Barrows – Skying is the product of a band in complete control of their own sound. This is felt most keenly in the new prominence given to Tow Cowan’s synthesizers. Whether opening the album with oscillating drones, shimmering in kaleidoscopic bursts of light on ‘I Can See Through You’ or clanging like wedding bells on ‘You Said’, they provide a necessary sense of continuity on an album of diverse influences. Ambitious without being arrogant, it’s not yet clear whether Skying represents a natural evolution for The Horrors or part of a carefully orchestrated musical master plan – we’ll have to wait for their next release to find out for sure.