Blaubac - Perdurance
by Mark Rowland
published: 23 / 6 / 2002
Label:
Moth
Format: CD
intro
"Far above average" electronica from British based braindance innovator, Chris Smith, who works under nom de plume of Blaublac
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.
Track Listing:-
1 Freyon2 Halocline
3 Photerene
4 Electron
5 Fraxis
6 Drsoph
7 Gongous
8 Velle
9 Mesolith
most viewed articles
current edition
Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies - Sala Apolo, Barcelona, 29/11/2023 and La Paqui, Madrid, 30/11/2023Anthony Phillips - Interview
Difford and Tilbrook - Difford and Tilbrook
Rain Parade - Interview
Oldfield Youth Club - Interview
Autumn 1904 - Interview
Shaw's Trailer Park - Interview
Cafe No. 9, Sheffield and Grass Roots Venues - Comment
Pete Berwick - ‘Too Wild to Tame’: The story of the Boyzz:
Chris Hludzik - Vinyl Stories
most viewed reviews
current edition
Marika Hackman - Big SighSerious Sam Barrett - A Drop of the Morning Dew
Rod Stewart and Jools Holland - Swing Fever
Loves - True Love: The Most of The Loves
Ian M Bailey - We Live in Strange Times
Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run
Autumn 1904 - Tales of Innocence
Roberta Flack - Lost Takes
Banter - Heroes
Posey Hill - No Clear Place to Fall
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart