Dean Blunt

No Dean Blunt thread? 'The Redeemer' is def my album of the year.

Bits and bobs of Kate Bush, David Sylvian, Aphex Twin, etc(some direct quotes - some influences totally digested and unique)
... plays more like an episode of 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' than it does a typical album.
Hallucinatory and magical stuff. Feel like he's really hitting on something special.

What do other people think? Anybody seen him live?

will have to check him out. any recommendations?

I'd probably just start with 'The Redeemer' than work back to 'The Narcissist II' (which is slightly odder, but pretty much cut from the same cloth, I think).

Just saw this comment from a Guardian piece. The description of his live show is a pretty good indication of what to expect on record too:
21:50 - the venues one light goes off and we stand with the sound of rain playing in darkness for 10mins.
22:00 - a trumpeter, joanne robertson, and dean blunt walk on stage. blunt in a dark coat, black cowboy hat. he stands still under the one light shining on the stage, head bowed for a good few minutes, as the instrumental and trumpeter play.
Halfway through, a set of strobe lights go off and it really stuns you for a few moments until you can live with it. it is accompanied by this heavy heavy bass, which just shook the place.
22:35 - having played his last song, he sticks his fist in the air, black panther style, and walks off the stage and out of view.

Love it.

haven't heard this but absolutely love the dean blunt / inga copeland album on hyperdub

My most-played album this year, too, along with the Stone Island mixtape.

'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'

otm. My bf described it as "Smog with more swearing"

Ha! I can hear that.

Haven't spent much time w 'Stone Island' yet cuz I keep reaching for 'The Redeemer.'
Stoked that it'll be there when I'm done obsessing over this one though.

this album sounds very unique to me, def one of the best of the year, very hypnotizing. what I first thought was a straightforward breakup album sounds a lot more ambiguous after several listens

his voice does remind me a little of bill callahan's

He's got a gorgeous new mix out with Joanne Robertson:

https://soundcloud.com/cplnd/skin-fade

You might want to hurry; there was a Soundcloud dl link this morning, nothing all day, and now this WeTransfer link for who knows how long...

Oh, and while I'm here: suddenly "All Dogs Go to Heaven" is one of my favorite tracks of 2013. Totally snuck up on me.

OH AND

one final thought: Blunt (and Copeland?) retired the Hype Williams alias quite a while ago, but there's a fairly new remix (Perera Elsewhere's "Bizarre") out as HW. It could be Blunt, but it's an easy enough style to fake- does anyone think he's relinquished "Hype Williams" to someone else like he's said he would in a few interviews?

Neat live in the studio Blunt starting at around 37 min or so. Dude has still got it.

https://soundcloud.com/rinsefm/scratchadva20714

New album "Black Metal" is SO good.

Oddly, it starts off with a kinda mid-tempo, guitar-y, rainy day vibe... then def takes off in a few different directions. More urban-ish moments... sax solos... noise... of a piece with The Redeemer, but a few new things going on too.

Not many better these days, I think.

NYC show at Webster Hall on 11/6.

He also uploaded a "deluxe edition" of Skin Fade a while back with separate tracks and titles (and supposedly some changes; I haven't had a chance to listen to the new version and compare it to the single-track mix yet):
https://soundcloud.com/urbansocialmedialounge

i could do without the guitar songs of the beginning but the rest of the album is outstanding.

This record reminds me of Smog

Guitar songs at the beginning are dope, you're crazy - reminds me of some Dif Juz 4AD shit.

This is really a great album tho.

This record reminds me of Smog

For the last three years Dean Blunt has been sounding exactly like Smog

Has some A.R. Kane-ish moments as well.

I haven't really listened to Smog, should I?

No? I don't know any more. In DB (esp. Redeemer and Stone Island, less so this new one tho I like it) there's an air of unaffected nihilism streaked through, a perfect chair-tip balance. Only other dude I've heard who got that balance right between too-fussy or too-careless was that gold period of Smog before he started writing real songs, listen to "Kicking A Couple Around", "Burning Kingdom" and "Wild Love" I suppose, but it's impossible for me to retract teen nostalgia from my love for that music

you have to laugh at grown men sitting around listening to dean blunt

just my $0.02

then, why not talk abt why it's ridiculous (i don't agree fwiw)

Rap section, chant section - whatever it is, should never have been put on there imo.

lol, I'm getting these threads mixed up now! Too many grown men sitting around and something something.

prescriptive age gatekeeping of any sort can fuck off tbh

dean blunt & taylor swift all i listen to

The show in NYC last week was killer.

This new album is the first time I ever really bothered with this guy - I was never grabbed by anything I heard before and he's kinda prolific which always makes me cautious - but listened to this album after hearing he was good live from different people. I didn't realise I needed something that sounded like a fusion of Joy Division, "night bus" post-dubstep and aggressive hip-hop but this is so up my street.

I'm into this. There's a big AR Kane vibe on "Black Metal"

Wesley Willis did it better.

But seriously: I don't see what the hype's about. I tried with The Redeemer but, eventually, it just left me cold. What should I hear? What am I missing?

The Narcissist II is my favourite release of his post-Hype Williams.

I'm listening to Black Metal now having never really heard Dean Blunt nor Hype Williams before and... this is it??? i had no idea what to expect, but I guess I'm not sure what I should make of this?

idk did you expect sth other than music

I gave the album a cursory listen, not really sure why it's supposed to be good.

So his group Hype Williams has nothing to do with the video director Hype Williams?

Black Metal isn't the place to start, i wouldn't be a fan solely on that basis either. Narcissist II and Black Is Beautiful (the latter w/ Inga Copeland) are his clear apex imo

not heard black metal yet but found the solo albums dull as anything. might be that they need repeated listens, his voice has a nice texture, but its not the most expressive instrument. the place to start is the ebony album on hyperdub, one nation, and the find out what happens... album.

This is drug music, for sure.

So his group Hype Williams has nothing to do with the video director Hype Williams?

― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Friday, April 24, 2015 4:35 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

MOLLY AND AQUAFINA

like what is there to not get, what do you want music to do that it does not do?

no one gives a fuck that you dgi/don't understand the hype/are confused it doesn't sound like another bespectacled teuton who remakes surgeon or "mysteries of love" in so many vsts

whoa dude, take it easy.

Many people whose tastes I generally share, or whose musical expertise I respect, praised this album very highly, and I'm interested in hearing what makes it interesting to people who like it, because it didn't engage me at all sonically, conceptually, lyrically, or on other levels. I'm not sure where bespeckled teutonic strawmen came into this, or why I'm not allowed to say I don't get it (but why it's then ok to tell people no one gives a fuck about what they think, as if anyone is expecting as much)?

yr'e allowed to be all faux-naif abt an album i'm allowed to tell to stfu

every ilm thread is like 1000 ppl who should know better going "why doesn't this sound the way i want it to"

*disappears in cloud of weed smoke*

xpost simplify things much?

I think maybe clouds took exception to "...this is it"? Which tends to come across as an expression of being an all-knowing subjective musical bullshit detector -> people who likes this are rubes

Black Metal straight blows, most of Hype Williams is interesting but not useful, but Stone Island and Redeemer are totally totally amazing

Yes, I prefer my music to be useful.

onlygebrauchmusikthings.tumblr.com

o yr'e a cool guy but idk how seriously i can take someone who rates muhly but hates bruckner. (i'd love to argue abt it over a cocktail one day. offer's open.)

black metal has some jams, on the whole i probably prefer it to redeemer. i don't see how someone could love redeemz but think BM "straight blows" they're pretty similar. "the redeemer" off redeemer is his best song though. i wouldn't expect anyone to like this project though, it has its charms but comes off weird and murky and half-assed at a lot of moments

Black Is Beautiful (the latter w/ Inga Copeland) are his clear apex imo

yes

clouds we can cocktail any time, but that discussion is brief :) Nico and I are friends and so I hear everything he writes and have found a lot of beauty in it

I need to re-check-out Black Is Beautiful, in my binge of Hype Williams everything a few years ago I thought it was extremely useless ya useless it wasn't written and recorded to be useable. How do you use a piano-in-the-lobby-of-the-Standard recording except as an anecdote? What good is a muddy mixtape except in creating a reputation for notoriety? I'm not a listenability fascist at all obv my tastes prefer "difficulty" but a lot of Dean's music leans toward complete non-functionality. I could start pruning the bad rock tracks off Black Metal, or I could return to Redeemer and Stone Island which are perfect in vision and execution

I think that's it, a lot of Black Metal just sounds like bad rock tracks. I should try the redeemer, maybe.

Also, I was thinking about it, and I'm really hard pressed to think of teutonic dance producers known to be bespectacled. The only one I could think of is Robag Wruhme, and having scoured through "top 100 dj" lists, the only other I noticed was Roman Flugel. It's like black turtlenecks... when did a quote-un-quote "pretentious" person ever wear a black turtleneck? How did that become a thing???

but a lot of Dean's music leans toward complete non-functionality

lol, very true. i don't know if i even dislike the bad rock tracks on black metal, theyre kinda silver jews-ey tbh. but the album takes a pretty crazy swirl after those

i might have just been thinking of surgeon himself lmao

It's like black turtlenecks... when did a quote-un-quote "pretentious" person ever wear a black turtleneck? How did that become a thing???

now is the time on sprockets when we dance

just picked up "black is beautiful" ... such an odd album, but oddly compelling

when i first heard babyfather, i thought it was the worst thing hes done. terrible sub road rap pranking. but after listening to it repeatedly, now i think it might be the best thing hes done since hype williams (still not heard black metal). the fake idris elba quote also made me lol.

THIS MAKES ME PROUD TO BE BRITISH x infinity

Black Metal easily his best imo

the radio set he did on the hyperdub show on sunday night might actually be better than the album.

def the angriest thing hes done to date.

'EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT BEING INTO DUB CULTURE, JAH SHAKAS PLAYING IN TOTTENHAM ON SATURDAY'

also i didnt know dj escrow was a real person until this show and was convinced for a minute that it was dean blunt alternating between the two voices (waiting for someone to tell me this actually IS what was happening)

I mean, there's no way Escrow isn't Blunt. Unless I'm missing something.
Either way, 'BBF' is crazy good. Def connecting more w me than 'Platinum Tears' did.

DB has his own lane, which is certainly refreshing these days.

youtube user 'pollyjacobsen' worth following for the DB fans out there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCZOiDkcdUw

I can't get the melody of Meditation out of my head, damn that stoned delivery.

Heard the album for the first time today and I really enjoyed it. Sounds great. I'm gonna keep listening.

keep finding myself in the mood for this, its beguilingly ugly in a way that I find myself craving when I'm feeling a little burnt out on everything else

THIS MAKES ME PROUD TO BE BRITISH

not sure if it was inentional but this wld be a tone perfect brexit soundtrack

THIS MAKES ME PROUD TO BE BRITISH

I loved "Black Metal" but thus DJ Escrow thing is hard to endure. Love that album cover tho

never a quasimoto fan? this prompted me to go and have a proper listen to black metal and it is ofc fantastic, but this is a v dean blunty follow up, low key and immersive and fractured, I think he's at his best doing this sort of stuff

this makes me proud to be...

thought the first pre-rough trade solo albums were a bit shit, boring and lifeless, TBH, but am keen to hear black metal properly.

http://crackmagazine.net/article/music/hackney-vs-brixton-conversation-dean-blunt-gaika/

Really enjoyed this conversation/interview between him and Gaika.

good read

#1 at RA?!?

https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/2859

I know. Weird.

Not sure how to interpret that.

I couldn't finish listening to it, tried a number of times.

That said, his delivery of this record at Field Day on the verge of Brexit was pretty spectacular, but strictly as a piece of performance art.

New Dean Blunt's pretty pleasant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxro-Wjs4yo

Great track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQXCR3XHHcM

babyfather record is so good. i like the comparison to We're Only In It For The Money - few albums are both this funny and perplexing at the same time

👀

Roaches is really good, especially "Trident 2"

new book on dean blunt

https://www.the87press.com/product-page/beefy-s-tune-dean-blunt-edit-dhanveer-singh-brar

Black Metal 2 out today. Similar to the mellow alt-rock vibes of the first one but with higher production values and only 23 minutes long. Lots of angelic Joanne Robertson vocals. If any of these tracks are sample-based I don't recognize them. "the rot" is utterly gorgeous

great album. and a sorta Ramones cover -- neat indeed.

I have ignored Dean Blunt all the way until now, but I like this new one. I guess I should listen to some of his earlier stuff? His catalog is daunting. Maybe I'll just pretend he's new.

I'd recommend Hype Williams' One Nation in terms of his early stuff w/ Inga...

absolutely loved black metal 2. it did feel more like a return to inga copeland collabs than a sequel to the first black metal–all the noise is gone. the songs are great tho, and i wish it was longer

Definitely hunt more Dean Blunt!

I’d recommend Redeemer, Black Metal and Black is Beautiful for starters. Also the BBF album under Babyfather alias is divisive but I love it. I recommend reading the tinymixtapes review for it too, it helps understand what’s going on: https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/babyfather-bbf-hosted-dj-escrow

The Redeemer and its companion mini-album Stone Island are probably my favorite Dean, and there's lots of good stuff on the Roaches 2012-2019 comp. He's been consistently fascinating and mysterious for over a decade

Stone island is the one dean blunt album I go back to, everything else is pretty hit or miss for me

the redeemer for me <3

I like a bunch of his stuff but the only one i own is Wahalla, which is the album he did with Joanne Robertson. 'Fuckboy Anthem' off that is great