Erik Blood
Album Review: Lost In Slow Motion
06.13.16
One of Seattle’s most unheralded, but highly-regarded, musicians, Erik Blood, has made major footprints producing and engineering work for acts like Shabazz Palaces, Tacocat, and THEESatisfaction, to name just a few. He might just be the busiest in the business, but somehow he has found time to release another solo record this year. Released April 29, 2016, Lost In Slow Motion takes a cinematically lush turn from his last solo record Touch Screens, which reveled in more straightforward rock.
The new material asks you to bend your mind through a moody sonic palette starting with opening track “When They Are Loving.” A cosmic, spoken-word piece that leads into “The Attic System,” a track that’s a direct musical continuation, their ghostly, glitchy, waves of sound wash over you, creating an organic urban vibe that extends through the record as a whole. Teaming up with Irene Barber (Eighteen Individual Eyes) on vocals, the twosome have compiled mysterious layers of disposition that act as internalized instrumentation.
Each track on the album seems to explore a new layer of dreamy longing via stirring electronics, space enough to reflect, full enough to not let you fall too hard. “Bloused Up” digs into desire and modern predictability, its 80s synth beat and reverb perfectly melding together. And then “Covered in a Color” aims straight for spacious soaring. “Quiet” plays with wispily-pitched, organ-like textures, and a deep, reverberating beat. It’s a sweeping track sounds like Phantom of the Opera gone pop in its delicate balance of depth and light.
Whether it’s a throbbing hand clap or a delicate chime, a mass of strings or glitchy electronics, Blood’s exploration of dizzy, nuanced layers shows off his talents to best advantage. The modern ambiance on LISM reflects artists like Cocteau Twins and TV on the Radio, while owning its own space. And that space is one where we get the pleasure of sonic catharsis amongst Blood’s oeuvre.
Review by Stephanie Dore
