With a name like that, I was expecting an MOR indie band with their eyes on the major label stardom prize, for some reason. Turns out, to my immeasurable joy, that Perfect Blue are in fact creators of abstract, blissed-out soundscapes that recall the less beat-y moments of Seefeel, the floating repetition of Pink Floyd’s ‘Live at Pompeii’ set and the subtle, intricately textured layers of Main.

The four tracks here shift in and out to form a blurred whole; multilayered planes of sound building up a many-frequencied core that’s reinforced by occasional, muted beats and vaguely human sounds. At times it threatens to go full-blown into ‘Loveless’-style lysergic overload, especially on ‘In Fear of Fear’ which twists up the tension rating a notch with carefully looped sounds of (perhaps) heavily treated strings or feedback.

Just staying on the right side of lame chill-out blandness, Perfect Blue inject enough darkness into their relatively sedate music – sinister echoed tubular bell sounds here, shifting bass sounds there – to maintain the attention. Like some of the finest music for relaxing to, it relaxes you in a way that’s slightly frightening and intimidating.

Perfect Blue

Posted: 09|12|06 at 8:05 pm. Filed under: record reviews.
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