Blonde Redhead

"23"

Blonde Redhead are older than you think. The group formed back in ’93 and their debut album was released in ’95. In the music world, especially indie rock, fourteen years is a lifetime-and-a-half. You would imagine they’ve evolved well beyond any musical trends by now. So how come they’ve just discovered shoegaze? That may sound like a stab at the band, but it's actually meant as a compliment. The "shoe" could not have fit any better. "23" (Two-Three) opens with the kind of echo drenched piano chords you associate with bad 90’s music (à la Haddaway’s “What Is Love?”), but the meat of the track is a hypnotic, droning guitar wash. They cut back on the art-rock, but not the cinematic approach established on their last album, Misery Is A Butterfly. Kazu Makino’s melody steadily rides a river of reverb the rest of the band seems to swim in. "23" has My Bloody Valentine written all over it, but it’s an excellent example of imitation-as-art as opposed to wearing your influence on your sleeve. The sound is new for them, but the style is all their own, and style will almost always win over anything else.



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