Blonde Summer
In episode 47 of his weekly new music round-up, Getintothis’ Patrick Clarke is on an electronic bent as he takes in an L.A. anthem, swarming European dance and a theatrical techno newcomer.
There are more than enough troglodytes peddling MOR hard-rock dross and weeping for the death of ‘real music’ on Led Zeppelin‘s Vevo at the moment for the adjective anthemic to have been dragged through the proverbial mud as a valid descriptor. Which is a shame, really, because for the title track and first single from L.A. project Blonde Summer‘s new EP Paradise, it’d do quite nicely.
After a shakey fifteen seconds of soft electronica, the tune soon erupts into a heavyweight sway of monolithic organ and cuts an immediate swaggering stride. What elevates it, though, is that the group are content to keep evolving; a woozy middle-eight drifts with luxurious sheen before a second explosion, a kaleidoscope of synth texture ebbs, flows and layers, and a Vampire Weekend harpsichord lends a modish counter-melodic hook at the final third, yet never is the momentum halted.
Elsewhere on the EP, released in full on August 28, CA Kid tops even the aforementioned single in vast, emotive sweep, Stay Kids hit the mark on a launch towards perfected alternative-pop, while Blazed careens with thumps and squalls of overcharged guitar on a record as diverse as it is delightful.
The debut single from Berlin/Stockholm duo SQRD is a more claustrophobic affair, submerging the mechanical pumps of Beast in a seething brood of opaque electronica that swells and propels in relentless rhythm across a four minute rush of pulsating ebbs and flows.
Lent spine by rhythmic industrial stomps, launching electro chimes lend enrapturing rays of light as they flood into earshot with the smoothest of euphoric, Caribou-esque sweeps, while airless, submerged drifts of ghostly distorted vocal float atop the pulsating gloom on a tune that races with fast-paced fluidity.
Freddie Lord‘s career, finally, is as embryonic as they come, yet on the evidence of a scant array of Soundcloud postings, already packs an idiosyncratic punch. His vocal calls the gloomy theatrics of 80s synth-pop at its finest, while instrumentally his latest in a long line of belters, Erase, is an invigorating streak of smooth modish techno that cuts out something special for the relative unknown.
Of his older outings, meanwhile, Real is the absolute standout, a thudding, attitudinous two minutes of truly ferocious electronica with a robotic meltdown of a finish to boot.
