Blind Divine - Devouring The Beautiful
1 rating since posting on Thursday, December 20, 2007
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STYLE Shadowy, quirky trip hop with imaginative female vocals. Blind Divine create tasteful electronic arrangements full of individual sounds and evocative peripherals. Pianos feature strongly in the melodic aspects of the music - tinkling effected background echoes, moody lead lines and supportive ivory beds. Chimes, synthetics, guitars, crackling static, eerie string strains, unidentifiable noises all get the Blind Divine 'treatment' so that compositions all have a peculiarity setting them suitably apart from the mainstream. Paula Catherine Valencia's vocals are lush, low-key and steeped in emotion. She sings from the heart and uses her voice in a broad range of styles - spoken, close-up intimacy, impassioned outpourings, strong choruses, dreamy backing vocals. There are some inventive interludes and digressions among the songs - wistful piano meanderings, snippets of speech or what appear to be incidental recordings - sometimes tracks wind down into abstraction and a kind of distracted freeform. There are, of course, also some downright strong songs, well constructed and delivered with feeling and panache. The tracks don't overstay - tightly cut into a brevity that has the listener caught by the hooks and embellishments yet wanting more. For an album with so much packed into it, the highlights arise with surprising frequency. MOOD Sultry, brooding and murkily opulent - this album is a very powerful debut from a band that will go on to refine their sound into gathering beauty. The short tracks nearly all have catchy hooks that work in delightful counterpoint to the lulling nocturne approach of the instrumentation. Arty soundscapes with a gothic touch where languid layered guitars and carefully chosen supporting sounds at times call to mind a darker Mandalay. ARTWORK The artwork here is quite dark - mostly in shades of deep red on black with an overall gothic impression. A portrait in an oval frame is centred on the front cover, monochrome, looking like something from a bygone era. Decorative borders, characters and various motifs litter the design establishing a gloomy opulence. This card digipack opens into three panels with lyrics laid out inside - black on red - small font - graphic backdrop. Credits, thanks and contact info all are fond on the central inner panel. OVERALL Twenty three pieces of otherworldy beauty make for a debut album that really catches the attention. Released in 2005 via Mysticus Publishing Devouring The Beautiful has similarities with the work of Shelly Harland, Maple Bee and perhaps a more introspective Collide - brooding, aching, at times dreamlike and strange. Blind Divine's sound has been described as 'art music' - which sounds pretty apt to me. Their haunting soundscapes and poetic musings wander unfettered through whatever structures take their fancy - yet throughout everything their trip-hop aesthetic remains intact holding the album in clear cohesion. The band has since released a number of other recordings which can be sampled on the official website. WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM Blind Divine's first release bridges the fields of trip hop, art music, shoegazer and ethereal dream pop. Give this one a try if you enjoy sensually lazy female vocals and inventive downbeat instrumentation. -  Morpheus Music
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posted 12/20/07
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Blind Divine - Devouring The Beautiful was recommended for:
- Tribe: Phutureprimitive
- Tribe: Delerium
- Tribe: Morpheus Music