Blue On Blue - Blue On Blue

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Clinton on Fri 28 Oct, 2011.

I picked this out because 'Blue on Blue' by Bobby Vinton is one of my favourite songs. Yes, I'm choosing my own records this week instead of being allocated the dregs (ahem, sorry, the weekly leftovers). Lucky old Blue on Blue I say as I quite like these young Londoners. It's quite obvious they have been listening to The XX, especially on opener 'We Never Sleep' which expertly marries a 606 type bassline and thumping beats with haunting female vocals to mash up a couple of disparate genres expertly. 'I Feel Warm' sounds like a woozy, exhausted Jesus and Mary Chain whilst on the flip 'Mad Girl Love Song' recalls Mazzy Star (them again) and This Mortal Coil. The closer 'Paradise Syndrome' has Young Marble Giants drum machine and bass lines fighting it out with Joy Division atmospherics. Overall a nice, forward thinking EP and a very promising start.

The five-track EP released on 12” vinyl, and available to download via Tip Top Recordings, features a set of intense, claustrophobic and therapeutic tracks that cover everything from love to heartache, mental breakdowns and insomnia.

Lead track and first single ‘We Never Sleep’, an upbeat yet claustrophobic dance track, is about relentless insomnia and bizarre sleeping patterns. The heart-wrenching ‘I Feel Warm’ follows, which is lyrically opaque with a swelling string section and acts as a contrast, if not a relief to the preceding track. Vocals switch female to male as BoB display a drummer-shorn creative freedom and individuality. Next is instrumental piece ‘Thue-Morse’ that attempts to put to music, a fractal binary sequence while ‘Mad Girl Love Song’ was inspired by the Sylvia Plath poem of the same name The EP closer, a six minute noisescape which is both deeply intimate and aggressive, ‘Paradise Syndrome’ is dark journey into loneliness, depression and guilt about one's own shortcomings. The 12” intro is a blast of otherworldly noise produced by sound-scanning the band’s self-produced cover art.

The Blue on Blue line up of Dee Sada (vocals/bass/electronics) – formerly D-bird in An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump - and Billy Steiger (vocals/guitar/electronics) share vocals and produced, engineered and recorded the EP themselves in their tailor-made Morgenrock Studios in Cable Street, East London. Using an array of custom-made instruments to create their own unique sound, the band is dedicated to pursuing the intricacies of sounds and music.

Having supported The Charlatans on their recent UK tour the duo played a mini-UK tour in September and launch the EP on October 31 with a special Rough Trade East in-store performance before heading to The Old Blue Last to support The Doldrums for Vice Magazine.