VA: Blind EP3
Blind Music

Blind Music's third installment in its Blind series presents four untitled tracks—numbers seven through ten, for those keeping score—of contrasting stylistic approach, suggesting that—even though no info about who created the music nor how it was created is available—the tracks weren't produced by a single individual. Even that determination is hard to make with complete confidence, however, given the absence of recording details. For all we know, it could be the work of a four producers or a single one, gleefully intent on leading us to surmise otherwise.

Regardless, the twenty-minute EP repays one's time and attention, no matter who's involved. “BLND#7” slinks into position armed with an ear-catching Cuban funk-jazz feel before hauling out the heavy bass artillery and ragga-fied vocal accents—the anonymous creator in this instance providing an imaginative twist on the drum'n'bass template. “BLND#8” impresses, too, for the plethora of percussive treatments—marimba, congas, and otherwise—its creator scatters across the tune's martial-styled terrain. A shapeshifting bodymover, the ninth transplants the listener into a dubwise jungle track ornamented with a lithe funk bass pulse and horn accents, after which “BLND#10” plunders, by the sound of it, an old bop recording for its clattering snare rolls and blazing horns and then reshapes them into a drum-heavy throwdown. As the EP winds down, one begins to wonder how long the project will carry on and whether the identities of the artists responsible for the music will someday be disclosed. Much of what's here dazzles so mightily, it seems a shame not to be able to give credit where credit's due—even if doing so would seem to go against the founding principle of the project.

August-September 2014