Name: Best Blues
Brand: Small Black

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

jag269cd

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Discs

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2015-10-16

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

UPC / Barcode

0656605226927

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Small Black

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Jagjaguwar

The group's third full length release, written and recorded at their Brooklyn home studio, nicknamed 222, showcases a band still evolving, and embracing the unpredictable. Kolenik (keys, vocals), Ryan Heyner (guitar, keys, vocals), Juan Pieczanski (bass, guitar) and Jeff Curtin (drums) have been recording, writing, and often living together, throughout the life of the band, establishing a closeness that has allowed them to achieve easy creativity and unspoken chemistry. After a year of recording, that band enlisted mixer Nicholas Vernhes (War on Drugs, Deerhunter) of Rare Book Room Studio to help complete the record. 'Best Blues' finds the band in their sweet spot: the smoky intersection of considered and vulnerable songwriting and loose, almost nonchalant ambience. The addition of piano flourishes, trumpet (Darby Cicci of The Antlers), hidden acoustic guitars and Kaede Ford's ethereal vocals provide new dimensions to the band's already expansive sonic palette. Cut-to-the-chase rippers 'Back at Belle's' and 'Checkpoints' embody and build on the group's signature gritty yet focused electronic sound. While the more pastoral tracks, such as 'Between Leos,' and 'XX Century,' skeletally based on recorded improvisations, find the band painting a more nuanced, assured aural portrait. The repeating of the line "twentieth century" on closer, 'XX Century', serves as a coda for the album, offering a simple summation of what Best Blues' intent has been from the opening Casio stab: an attempt to re-examine the past, but also one to let it go.

Best Blues

Music GB