Grimes/ D'eon - Darkbloom

A strange record this. Two Montreal artists seemingly united a quest for the perfect left-field future pop & modern Balearic attitude. Lets try the D'eon side first. He's the muntered semi-dread on the sleeve. After an odd new age-flecked opener which is virtually ruined by stuttering frequencies we get into the meat of the record and guess what? It's monged cyber R'n'B time. A lush soulful groove carries a pitched-down vocal to fine effect with some sympathetic ambient techno style snare claps propping up the central hub. There's some real nice fluttering retro flecks on the track 'Tongues', the mogadon'd vox riding the hazy rhythms in fine style. His side concludes with another drugged-up slice of spangled lover's soul with ricocheting rim-shots & mucho new-age dreamsynth. Grimes (the cute goth pixie to D'eon's right) contributes 5 tracks which vary between a brief yet stunning darkly ethereal opener to the slow piano-tinged 'Vanessa' whilst other tracks have that balmy, intricate & treacly sluggish vibe that befits this loose retro/futurist ear candy. Her vocals sound incredibly monged for a lady's - I keep having to switch RPMs to try work out what sounds most realistic. Which makes her tracks sound clubbier but her voice all helium'd. So much of this contemporary dream pop & chilled-out downtempo tears your head apart with indecision and could be played at many variable pitches because the vocals sound twatted whatever! I do wonder how much mileage there is in this style but the quality of the music here is warm, richly layered & dream-like. One for the Games (Ford & Lopatin) fans for defs....