Blooy – Elegies to Spring – 4-Track EP – 2021 – SINE MUSIC
Genre: Lo-Fi, Chillout, Electronica
On Friday, July 16, 2021, the long-awaited 4-track debut EP of Blooy will be released by SINE MUSIC. This work is titled with the epic name “ Elegies to Spring“. But to which realms does the Dutch-born Blooy, whose real name is Frank Wijn, want to take us with this headline?
Well, what strikes us first is the immensely tasteful cover that wants to signal us „here comes something very tasteful, something noble, very dignified.“
And that’s exactly what it is. Blooy serves us lo-fi sound here, no matter if you want to sort it into the chillout or hip-hop box. Especially in the case of Blooy, styles and genres are completely irrelevant. Certainly, the music of Blooy fits almost perfectly into the sound spectrum of SINE MUSIC, which ranges from ambient sounds to downtempo and slowed down dancefloor stuff.
The Tracks
And yet Blooy’s sound is completely different, because he thankfully avoids electronic gear battles, he limits himself to the bare essentials and creates his very own sound with an immensely high recognition value. Lo-Fi has nothing to do with low-quality music or even bad sound. Certainly Blooy uses here, as for example in the tracks „Demain Dès Làube“ and „Aeon“, such gimmicks as noise and crackling from the good old LP to make the sound a bit antiquarian. But all this is recorded with studio equipment at the very highest level.
„Demain Dès Làube“ („Tomorrow, at Dawn“), the second track on the EP, is by the way a very hip, fascinating piece of music and is based on a beautiful poem by the French poet Victor Hugo from 1849. The first two stanzas of the poem are contributed by a French speaker Blooy has found through the Fiverr platform. This was an absolute lucky choice, because the sonorous sound of his voice fits exactly to the mood the track is radiating. Words and music form a perfect harmony, both let the listener sink into thoughts and melancholy.
For the piano sound, Blooy used a high-quality piano from Native Instruments. He played the notes very quietly to get this harmonious, ‚muffled‘ sound. To achieve the ‚antique‘ sound, Blooy uses various plugins such as Heavy EQ, compression, vinyl and retro effects that deliver an antiquarian sound patina. The chordal layers consist of a Mellotron, an arpeggiated retro synthesizer and two string layers at the end of the song, bringing the whole thing to a reservedly designed climax. In the last part, Blooy recorded some melodica sequences live.
Lo-Fi or chillout – „Demain Dès Làube“ is for me the best track of the EP, the lyricism set to music comes in the guise of melodic minimal music and classical reinterpretations, as Christian Löffler and also Thylacine from France have already successfully practiced recently.
I don’t need to say much more about the EP’s opener, the single „Carousel“. „Carousel“ is a very successful prime example of modern and intelligently arranged lo-fi hip-hop chillout sound and awakens the hunger for more. I’ve already reviewed the single „Carousel“ here, you can also find more information about Lo-Fi Hip-Hop there.
Also the third track „Aeon“ is very appealing, Blooy was inspired by his New Wave roots from the last century (damn, are the eighties really that long ago?). However, it took me a while to find relevant examples from the gloomy melchancholic New Wave scene.
New Wave has never been a genre to me – „Wave“, as we used to say back then, was just much too diversified for that – but was rather the name for a zeitgeist period starting in the early 80s. But Blooy is quite right, „Aeon“ does evoke associations with tracks like „Henry Lee“ by Nick Cave (Murder Ballads, 1996), „Seventeen Seconds“ by The Cure (Seventeen Seconds, 1980) or even Joe Jackson’s „Not Here, Not There“ from the fantastic album „Body and Soul (1984).
But be careful, I’m not talking about „This sounds like“, I’m talking about associations that the track „Aeon“ awakens, which is to be classified incomparably higher. Aeon is like a short soundtrack that musically illustrates long-gone times.
The mentioned tracks can be found in this playlist:
Last but not least we come to the fourth and last track „Love is Wise“ from the EP. The track is a beautiful downtempo number based on a repetitive piano melody. Blooy masterfully conjures up a wonderful musical arc of suspense with a running time of just 2:53 min.
The Bottom Line
I eagerly awaited „Elegies to Spring“ – and it was worth the wait. Blooy presents us with 4 extraordinary sound examples from his very own, but very fascinating sound cosmos.
Blooy’s music is like a good friend you always enjoy inviting to a lavish spring breakfast on the patio.
And we are already looking forward to the album, which will soon pour into a near-earth orbit.
Sound Quality
| Format: 24 Bit / 44.1 kHz | 09/10 |
| Spatiality: | 09/10 |
| Heights: | 10/10 |
| Mids: | 10/10 |
| Bass: | 10/10 |
| Total: | 9,6/10 |
Facts about „Elegies to Spring“:
Artist: Blooy
Title: Elegies to Spring
Format: 4 Track EP
Label: SINE MUSIC
Release Date: July 16, 2021
Genre: Lo-Fi, Chillout, Electronica
4 tracks • 13m 16s
Available at Qobuz in Hi-Res
24-Bit / 44.1 kHz – Stereo
My Test Equiment
Studio 1 (High End):
- 2 x System Audio SA Mantra 50 (front)
- 1x System Audio SA Mantra 10 AV (center)
- 2x System Audio SA Legend 5 (rear)
- 1 x System Audio Saxo 10 (subwoofer)
- 4 x Onkyo SKH-410 (B) (Dolby Atmos)
- Auralic Altair (audio streaming client with max. 32 bit / 384 kHz)
- NVIDIA Shield Pro with Plex, Kodi (max 192 kHz for Audio, Tidal (MQA Streaming Client)
- AppleTV 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Amazon Cube 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos (restricted), HDR, Dolby Vision
- Panasonic DP-UB9004 (4K UHD Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Oppo UDP-203 (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Yamaha CX-A5100 (Preamp) 4K, Dolby Atmos, Hi-res
- Yamaha MX-A5000 (Power Amp)
- Sony KD-55A1 (TV) 4K OLED, HDR, Dolby Vision
