The trio of Charlie Hilton, Patrick Adams & Jacob Portrait make up the Portland based Blouse, a band that, along with a handful of others, has recently redefined the sound of darker shoegaze and dream pop. Blouse uses a warehouse space to essentially run their band out of – meeting, practising and recording there. The project started in the summer of 2010, after Los Angeles native Charlie Hilton met Patrick Adams in art school. They began spending nights at the warehouse recording with Jacob Portrait (Unknown Mortal Orchestra; he has also worked Starfucker & The Dandy Warhols).
Their full length self titled debut LP was released via Brooklyn record label Captured Tracks (also home to The Soft Moon, Wild Nothing, Beach Fossils, and so on) on November 1st, 2011. “Into Black”, the band’s instantaneously catchy and dark first single, was followed up by the sunny yet deceitful track, “Shadow” (which was released via Sub Pop).
“I wrote the song “Shadow” after having reoccurring dreams about death. In the dreams, dying always felt kind of sparkly and wonderful.” – Charlie Hilton, Blouse
The band’s initial musical goal was to blend Charlie’s vocals and songs with Jacob and Patrick’s music, with special attention to Jacob’s flawless production style. The end result sounded like slow-core dream-pop from the late 80′s, mixed with art-rock of the late 60′s, and even a twinge of 90′s grunge. The band was pleased by this sound and have been honing it to perfection ever since.
For a relatively new band, Blouse has drummed up quite a bit of publicity for themselves. Captured Tracks has proven itself in recent years to be a record label with discerning taste, signing one excellent dreamy band after another. Captured Tracks is a label to look into, if you haven’t already. Quality.
Blouse are currently on tour, so definitely check the bands’ website to find out if they will hit your city soon. This is a show not to be missed. Look forward to something new from Blouse some time in 2012!
Links:
- http://bbblouse.bandcamp.com/
- http://www.blouseblouse.com/
- https://www.facebook.com/bblouse
- http://capturedtracks.com/
