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WASHED OUT - Belong (2009)
Alison Goldfrapp hasn’t cornered the spandex market in 2010, if this clip’s anything to go by.
More of that chillwave/glo-fi/hypnagogic stuff I can’t get enough of lately. You know I really dig Neon Indian already. This is Washed Out.
Washed Out is actually Ernest Greene, a 26-year-old University of Georgia grad who took advantage of some enforced down time (read: stalled economy) to master a bewitchingly cool blend of woozy synthesizers, ticking percussion tracks and multi-tiered, processed vocal harmonies. The result sounds like a sweltering late-August afternoon. Beautiful stuff.
To date, Washed Out’s music is mostly collected on the mini-LP High Times and the EP Life Of Leisure. With perverse pleasure I’d like to note the LP is only available on cassette; the EP only on vinyl. Yeah, no CDs from the Washed Out camp. It’s 1983 all over again, and I love it. It’s a bloody good thing my walkmans and turntable are functional.
Anyway, the clip featured above is High Time’s awesome highlight, “Belong.” It’s running neck-and-neck with Life Of Leisure’s “Feel It All Around” for my favourite song of spring 2010. The latter tune is a mashup of early Air, 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love,” and a Howard Jones-style synth-bass, set to a dignified stroll. Greene sampled Gary Low’s 1983 ”I Want You” for the hook, taking the best part of a forgettable European single and casting it in a gloriously evocative new light. Here’s a fan-made video of “Feel It All Around.”
Greene played in more typical bands during college, but opted to do this laptop pop alone. Great stuff. Don’t take my word for it: Washed Out plays Wrongbar in Toronto tonight with Small Black. The two have a split single out, which I’m hoping to find at the merch table.
