Debut album of meditative grooves from London four-piece, inspired by Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Steely Dan. FFO Whitney, Kevin Morby, White Denim.
BLUEPRINT BLUE
Announce debut album Tourist, due
26th April on the band's own Toadspin Records
Share new single, "An-D" - watch here
Preorder here: smarturl.it/BlueprintBlueAnD
Previous praise for Blueprint Blue:
"A breezy summer jam that blends Belle and Sebastian-esque sweetness with a blue-eyed soul undercurrent, it’s an understated gem" - DIY
"[Roll On] is a sumptuous, hazy love ballad that takes cues from the mastery of seventies pop" - So Young
"Blueprint Blue have created a stir in some quarters over the past year, with their demo tapes revealing a precocious, emotionally engrossing sense of songcraft." - Clash
"a compelling set full of doe-eyed Neil Young-isms performed with the tightest solidarity.. the melodic trio were every bit the band to rival The Band." - Crack
Blueprint Blue are lost in space. Their debut album, Tourist – self-released on their own Toadspin Records on 26th April - is a ten-track examination of love, the human condition and the future, beamed down from the ether and set to pristine, jazzy pop-rock.
Science fiction and fantasy define this record, and things are rarely as they seem. Along with the announcement, the band share first single "An-D". Singer and guitarist Elliot says of the song, "It’s about a dating service where you make a profile and this online algorithm can determine what’s going to make the most desirable android, a robot, for you. Then the johns fall in love with the thing that’s been created for them.”
The video features their friend Franklin playing An-D, "an androgynous android who, depending on the customer's individual profile, morphs to fit different fetishes and bespoke tastes. We play the customers who tragically and inevitably fall in love and lose themselves in fantasies of domestic intimacies and exact erotic fulfillment (this part is hopefully implied)." Watch it below...
Blueprint Blue - An-D
https://youtu.be/pltrI7-a5jA
Blueprint Blue's voyage began four years ago, when singer and guitarist Elliot Hayward, bassist Huw Webb and drummer Melissa Rigby had their first band practice in a back room round the corner from a pool hall. Bound together by a shared love of Neil Young, Grateful Dead and Steely Dan, Blueprint Blue quickly found their groove. The South Londoners released two EPs, Undertoad and Flying Machine, and then welcomed guitarist Rhys Timson into the family.
Recorded to 24-track tape at Vacant TV studio near Greenwich with Younghusband’s Euan Hinshelwood, Tourist represents the freest and fullest realisation of the band’s potential yet. It’s heady mix of guitars, bass, drums and their trademark harmonies is underpinned by irresistible synth lines that wander brightly throughout; an album to float through, built on easy, meditative groove.
“We’re well into keyboard territory,” Elliot says, smiling as he remembers the ham-slicing incident that meant his string finger was out of action for a while. “I hurt my hand and couldn’t play guitar, and we’ve discovered more interesting chords. We always listen to Stevie Wonder, who does brass, strings and basically everything on a synthesiser, that became a big part of the album.”
Blueprint Blue blur the lines between reality and illusion expertly. Words and music float in and out of focus, slick musicality reels you in towards cryptic lyrical pay-offs. This is classic songwriting, subverted.
“We’ve learned how to make poppier music,” Elliot finishes. “In our attempts to get to Stevie Wonder, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, the highest form of this music, we find ourselves somewhere else. Now, we have songs people could feasibly dance to. I’m looking forward to where we go next…”
Preorder:
smarturl.it/BlueprintBlueAnD
New Press Photo (credit Clare Shilland) [Larger Image]
Tracklisting:
1. Tourist
2. Real As These
3. Taking My Place
4. An-D
5. Tree Song
6. Roll On
7. Heatwave
8. Bitter Musician
9. Sucker Bait
10. Is There Anybody Out There?
CONNECT
www.blueprintblue.co.uk
https://blueprintblue.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/Blueprintblueband/
www.instagram.com/blueprintblueband
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