Through the Blinds sees French break cover to deliver a set of evocative ambient, experimental and downtempo electronica tracks with droning textures, soft-focus samples and treated piano motifs.
Detroit producer Blair French‘s Through the Blinds comes out on Delsin on January 25th, in conjunction with Dado Records—an enterprise launched by John Beltran, who brought French on board as an artist and partner. The Detroit-Dutch connection had already been cemented by Delsin’s release of Beltran’s Music For Machines (2014) compilation featuring French’s “Before Mornings Arrival” (see video below).
French had previously operated as Dial 81, under which alias, among other things, he scored the soundtrack to a documentary about his home city of Detroit, Detropia. Through the Blinds sees French break cover to deliver a set of evocative ambient, experimental and downtempo electronica tracks with droning textures, soft-focus samples and treated piano motifs. It benefits in no small part from composition that doesn’t try too hard for attention. Melodious and blissful, at times ambiguous, it boasts suspensory near-spiritual pieces with angelic chords and glassy textures. There are frostier tracks that sound like a chilly autumn walk, and some featuring emotive neo-classical piano and suggestively rhythmic compositions.
Through the Blinds is decidedly not French without tears, though. The artist describes the work as ‘personal from head to toe,’ the latter part in particular, touching on elegiac synth hymnals and lyrical lo-fi string-driven vignettes, particularly evidencing its characterization as ‘his meditation through an emotional transitioning period in his life.’ (interview here),
Through the Blinds is out in January on Delsin and Dado.
