Reviews
The surprisingly pleasant EP
"mind-expanding
rhythms and beats, with a toe-tapping
Wind chill
"warm, womblike
electronica for fans of Boards of Canada"
Rough Trade
"Blaubac are good. What you get is an ambient
electronic experiment that takes on the appearance
of a warm, human sound, yet remainining just out of
reach. Bordering on the edges of too clever, sometimes
thinking about dipping a toe over, but teetering on the
edge. "Flicker Noise" is the essential selection as
mixmeister zee would say, the beats are assured, the
presentation is elegant, and Z can foresee the day when
Blaubac become the chilled out noise of choice.
Most defiantly recommended.
"
Zeitgeist
undercurrent, experimental but never dull,
this medley of tunes will baffle you during
the long, dark nights"
Record Collector
"A cold intelligence blows through the fractured
time signatures and technical dazzle of Wind chill.
Written and produced by Chris Smith in the wake of his
Surprisingly Pleasant ep, it effectively balances
densely woven beats against ricocheting keyboards and
bursts of random sound. When his thoughts turn to darker
ends, as on the sparse 'Blue II' and the tone clusters seething
through the closing version of 'Slideslip', you can feel the
chill factor rise. Plenty to think about, but not much to
shelter behind when the going gets tough."
The Wire
"It's a vast digital landscape you could get lost in as you
twist and turn through its twilight grooves. Dark, defiantly
structured songs and high quality production values suggest that
this is an attempt by a new artist to create an album with
longevity in an arena known for modishness.
It's obviously too early to suggest that it's a potential classic,
but it's a classy album."
Nic Lane, Resonance Vol.9, No2
"The opening track on this debut album (slipslide)
sets the scene perfectly for what follows. After a
couple of minutes of sauntering bass, a precise
skipping rhythm kicks in, taking you by surprise.
After tricking you into thinking they're modern dub,
Blaubac turn in a leftfield techno classic.
Such trickery is evident elsewhere on the disc too.
"Affine" begins as what sounds like an experiment
in copper-pipe manipulation, but melts into a
lounge-dub workout. The epic "phoneme shear"
delivers another crisp, fresh beat after three or four
minutes of Drukqs-esque piano.
And is that a flourish or two of a light-sabre deep in
the mix? And strangulated jazz sax? Who knows?
But it sounds good.....
Indeed, blaubac's debut feels very much like a record
it will be cool to say you bought when it originally
came out. So do so. "
Record Collector
"Electronics with some very interesting undertones.
Moments where the influences are starkly jazz, blues
and funk. Accordingly it has a distinctly live feel to it.
A sort of Compost/ ESP / Thrill Jockey / Bubble Core
feel to it!! Nice!"
Smallfish
Perdurance
"So what perdures?
after the fantastic Surprisingly Pleasant EP
and debut album, Wind Chill,
Blaubac returns on the scene.
So the first fitting question of ‘any good?’
answers to YES. The immediately noticeable
thing is the look and feel of more available
funds behind the working. The casing looks
damn fine and, better still, the actual album
sounds so much better than the other two releases.
As with Global Goon and BoC’s closely put out latest
releases coming hand in hand, so does Perdurance
and the recent Cinematic Orchestra piece ‘Everyday’.
The addition of vocals on ‘Photerene’ strikes
similarities with Roots Manuva’s guesting with the CO.
As for the rest, Perdurance is packed with the familiar
Blaubac sound and comes across extremely full of confidence.
Album starter ‘Freyon’ uses the drum and bass sample bank to
confuse all who had just accustomed themselves with the moody,
down tempo jazz and piano of Wind Chill to give a darker hard
and fast beat that is far from expected. As the album winds on
so do the styles. Track six, Drsoph, starts off sounding much
like Cylob’s ‘Mood Bells’ - then the hard and faster beats kick
back in after their small absence. This breaching out from
familiar ground – Karine Charff’s sweet soothing vocal on ‘Velle’
bring to life the track and album so much more and it is in these
kinds of directions that Blaubac should continue.
Pitting hard harsh sounds against soft and gentle jazzy creativity
provides a neat contrast that gives this outstanding long player
that extra bit of ‘umph’ that Wind Chill didn’t quite hold.
An overall wholly confident and bold hour of quiet loud.'
"
IoCentral
"
Blaublac is the brainchild of Chris Smith,
who specialises in producing smokey, stuffy dub
influenced braindance. Interest has grown in Blaublac
over the past year, mainly due to the success Radiohead
achieved with their decidedly braindance influenced album
'Kid A', which definitely took its cues from Blaublac
on some of its tracks. 'Perdurance' is a slightly brighter
affair than it's darker than dark predecessor 'Wind Chill',
and takes on guest vocalists and musicians on tracks like
the slightly funky 'Photerene' and gentle piano lead track
'Velle', which gives the album a slightly more organic and
jazzy sound in places. Within the sleeve of 'Perdurance'
there is a passage that tries to explain what perdurance is,
ranting on about the "obvious flux of the galaxies, clouds,
rivers or sea" and the "Microscopic world of the quantum realm".
Quite frankly, this positively reeks of concept album,
but try not to let that put you off. You just have to listen with
a peg firmly attached to your nose. Tracks range from sparse opener
'Freyon' and the dubby 'Halocine' to the sludgy clatter of 'Gongous'
and the tribal thump and jazzy synths of 'Drsoph', but best of all
are the vocal lead tracks, especially 'Velle'. The addition of the
vocals doesn't stop the tracks from being un-mistakenly Blaublac,
but they do add and enhance the music, giving it an extra element
for Blaublac's electronic sketches to organise themselves around.
This puts 'Perdurance' far above your average electronica album
in its ability to form itself into proper songs without really
compromising its sound. Chris Smith may have developed a taste
for making concept albums, but we can but hope his next concept
will be to base his music around singers."
Mark Rowland, Penny Black Music