Artists To Watch 2012: Blondes

Artists To Watch 2012: Blondes

2 February, 2012 | 4.57AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: artists to watch 2012, blondes, rvng

The New York duo Blondes have been working at their unusual fusion of live, analog house and techno with Baleraric and Krautrock overtones for a couple of years now, winning over both indie listeners and “proper” club-music types; not many other artists have remixed art-rockers Health and performed at Space Amnesia.

Next week, they release their debut album on RVNG; the record has been in heavy rotation here in Beatport’s Berlin headquarters, and promises to stay there for a while. Get a sneak preview at SPIN, where you can stream the album in full.

We caught up with the band to find out about their unusual approach; read on for the interview, and check out their Campania International Moderne chart, featuring tracks from Kassem Mosse, Bicep, Carsten Jost, and more.

What kind of music do you make, and how long have you been doing it for?

We make live psychedelic electronic dance music that’s in a liminal state somewhere between house, techno, and kraut synthy stuff. We’re basically a jam band. We’ve been doing this project since 2009, but we’ve both been playing music since adolescence.

What’s your proudest musical achievement so far?

We got to play at Space in Ibiza last summer… That was really fun. We’re also playing Panorama Bar on our upcoming tour in February, really excited for that. Besides that it’s really just been that we’ve been able to travel and play live a lot everywhere. Playing out is really the main purpose of the project; the shaping of our music is improvised, so it’s the best when you’re taking it somewhere new and everyone’s there with it. It becomes a really communal experience based on the moment—not a canned track that’ll sound the exact same the next night.

What projects—singles, LPs, remixes, residencies, tours, etc.—do you have coming up for 2012? Beyond that, what do you hope to have accomplished by this time next year?

Our LP on RVNG with tons of good remixes is coming out next week, and we’ve got the aforementioned tour in Europe in February, which is going to be awesome. Probably some touring in the US at some point… but moving into writing and recording some more music. Planning on having some solid new stuff to release in the next year or so.

Any predictions (positive or negative) for electronic dance music in 2012?

Electronic music seems to be picking up a lot, especially in the US, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens. I think retro gear house will pick up more, and in the pop realm, teen raving will cause another ecstasy Time magazine cover scare or something

Finally, could you tip us off to an up-and-coming artist or label that you think people should know about?

We both love Future Shuttle… they’re our friends here in NYC who make super synthy, tranced-out ambient swirls.

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