{"id":684,"date":"2007-08-28T15:30:07","date_gmt":"2007-08-28T14:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/?p=684"},"modified":"2007-08-28T15:30:07","modified_gmt":"2007-08-28T14:30:07","slug":"blue-states-first-steps-into","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/?p=684","title":{"rendered":"blue states &#8211; first steps into .."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>       <DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">if you don&#8217;t know,<STRONG> blue states,<\/STRONG>  were the reason that <EM>memphis industries<\/EM> managed to get past the initial  problems of being a new label on the release block. <\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">the bands debut, <EM>nothing changes under the  sun<\/EM>,&nbsp;shifted serious units, individual tracks got licensed here, there  and everywhere,&nbsp;helping establish the ever interesting label as <EM>one to  watch. <\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">so it comes as no surprise to find that the  downtempo sonic template that <STRONG>blue states<\/STRONG> excel at continues to  impress. <\/FONT><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">the last time around, <EM>the  soundings<\/EM>, the music was fleshed out by a proper band, vocals and  everything. the results were gorgeous. <\/FONT><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">however,  for the fourth album, founder and <STRONG>blue states<\/STRONG> mainman, <EM>andy  dragazis<\/EM> has decided to sack the hangers on, and go back to his roots, with  a set of solo productions involving cinematic production tweaks, pianos,  strings, and plenty of fuzzed up guitars.<\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">other than the appearance of tweaked and phased  vocals on a handful of tracks, the album is predominantly an instrumental  affair, recalling the golden days of instrumental hip hop. <\/FONT><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">ahem, ok, lets just say the phrase, <EM>trip hop<\/EM> and get  it over with.<\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">thankfully, andy manages to avoid the usual boredom  inducing coffee table soundtrack malaise,&nbsp;and create some genuinely  affecting music for those times when you just want to take a break from the glut  of superficial compressed to fuck electro, or the generic radio saturated r-n-b  junk.<\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">for example, when the structure for <EM>the  electric component <\/EM>changes, and an unexpected&nbsp;hand clap\/jazz piano  interlude is dropped in, the pleasure factor is drastically increased,&nbsp;then  there are the emotional rollercoasters such as the string swamped epic <EM>100&#8217;s  and 1000&#8217;s, <\/EM>or the more upfront rocking noise of <EM>gaining time, <\/EM>all  of which pales into insignificance with the majestic 60s soul-n-pop styled  track&nbsp;<EM>what can be done to right a wrong, <\/EM>that just melts this  particular listener each and every time.<\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">of course, in the wrong setting, a lot of <EM>first  steps into .. <\/EM>could wash right over you, but having given the album some  time and space, these updated&nbsp;variants on <STRONG>david axelrods<\/STRONG>  use of heart stopping orchestration and rock music dynamics will definitely be  enjoyed for far longer than many of 2007s big hitters.<\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><EM>more detail<\/EM> : <A href=\"http:\/\/www.bluestates.com\/\">here<\/A><\/FONT><\/DIV><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>if you don&#8217;t know, blue states, were the reason that memphis industries managed to get past the initial problems of being a new label on the release block. the bands debut, nothing changes under the sun,&nbsp;shifted serious units, individual tracks got licensed here, there and everywhere,&nbsp;helping establish the ever interesting label as one to watch. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}