If you’ve been following JOVM over the past couple of years, you’d be pretty familiar with the New York-based electronic music/electro pop act, House of Blondes’ whose fantastic Clean Cuts landed at number 5 on this site’s Best of 2012 List that year, thanks to a sound that reminded me quite a bit of Kraftwerk and Brian Eno as the material possessed a stark yet dreamily atmospheric minimalism.
After playing an increasing number of shows locally over the last couple of years, including two shows with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Psychic TV at the now-defunct Brooklyn Night Bazaar, the band will be releasing their latest effort, Stranger Still on August 1. Stranger Still‘s second and latest single “I Always Wanted To Live Like That” much like the album’s first single “Black Buick” reveals that the band’s sound has become increasingly atmospheric. Shimmering and undulating synths are paired with handclap-led percussion and John Blonde’s ethereal vocals for the first 2/3s of the song before the songs brings up a tight motorik groove bolstered by the shimmering synths and ethereal vocals that pulled the song through until that point. And although extremely intimate and seemingly evoking the innermost sensations of its narrator, the song manages to retain the space-age feel of the material on Clean Cuts. Years ago, a fellow critic described the band’s sound as “headphone music for astronauts” — and that might be the most accurate description of their sound I’ve come across yet.
