I don’t know how it came up in conversation but I was told by someone to check out a collection of songs from Los Angeles’ finest artists titled From L.A. with Love. The album was curated by LA promotion group and party organizer ArtDontSleep (aka Andrew Lojero) to help get the LA music scene more recognized and to capture the eclectic mix of music that’s currently being created within the city. Of the 17 different artists and bands on the CD, I was specifically told to check out hip-hop producer Flying Lotus (aka Steven Ellison).
While I was into Flying Lotus’ sound, it’s not exactly what stood out the most to me on the record. The psychedelic trip-hop track “All the Shallow Deep” by Blank Blue floored me upon first hearing it - this just the second song on the album. I didn’t bother listening to the remaining songs focusing my efforts on the newly discovered Blank Blue.
“All the Shallow Deep” begins with a low-pitched backwards guitar, tribal drums, and a heavy beat before Niki Randa’s lighter than air vocals blossom into being as if just created out of thin air. As the song continues, it delicately straddles the fence between 60s psychedelia and the Bristol sound of the 90s while Miguel Atwood Ferguson’s string arrangements lend the song a warm and organic feel. It’s a perfect track to completely zone out to and lose yourself in.
Curious to find out more about my favorite new LA group, I did some digging and found out Blank Blue is the duo of Elvin Estela, who’s produced work for Busdriver under the moniker Nobody; and the angelic vocals (as mentioned above) belong to one Niki Randa. The two have been working together at Fingerprints Records in Long Beach since 2001 and just last year began creating music together. For a group still in its infancy, they show massive potential. Granted I’ve only heard two of their songs (check out MySpace for “Eyes Closed”) to date and I think that’s all that’s available to the public, but it does sound very promising.
The duo is currently working on the follow up to Estela’s 2003 album Pacific Drift: Western Water Music Vol. 1 aptly titled Pacific Drift: Western Water Music Vol. 2, described as “a water album with a story—about the quake that comes and slides us into the ocean.” Check out “All the Shallow Deep” below and keep an ear out for more from the band.