Future Blondes – Vila’gok 1
For the ear well travelled, there are treats to be found in obscure corners. Capricious in style but consistent in quality, Houston’s Future Blondes exist in a musician’s world. Vila’gok 1 (or Vilàgok One, or combination thereof depending where you look) is not for casual consumption. It demands patience – the opening instrumental jam “Szemed Vila’gom” is 16 minutes long – and it requires an active approach to finding the path less trodden to truly appreciate.
With a gloomy post-punk bassline, which segues into the consciousness below echoing guitar strokes that borrow from a Porn-era Cure master-class, the A-side challenges only in length but rewards dedication in full.
On a hugely restrained less-is-more vibe the band duly pout and glower over their atmospherics, gently bleeding into the mix a little Box-era Orbital with ghostly key patterns and a shimmering synth repeat. Drawing the effects together, pulling them to a dense centre without increasing the tempo, it culminates in a lazily epic crushing and drowning akin to being buried alive before finally limping out to a close with a tinny drum sequence.
The flipside of the release houses “Blush”, a warmly buzzing exercise in synth-driven static that seems to skip its way through a tinnitus-like outro before “Love Spirit Spiralling” brings down the curtain. Its ambient electronica starts life like a keyboard bedding track, rife with randomly climbing and falling arpeggiator sequences that are only latterly beset with extended laser-fire drone and sirens to distinguish.
Even within obscure corners there are niches, and in their variety Future Blondes are making a few of them their very own.
~Vila’gok 1 is out now on Skrot Up (a joint release with the Free Loving Anarchists label), and will be repressed on Human Non later in 2010. Vila’gok 2 will follow on the Robert & Leopold Cassette label.~