Relentlessly enigmatic pop jester Dean Blunt delivers a new slice of mystery in the form of a 26 minute mixtape posted to his SoundCloud earlier today. “SKIN FADE” marks the first bit of new material we’ve heard from Blunt since the equally out-of-nowhere Stone Island surfaced on a faceless Russian website with no explanation. Thankfully, the emotionally charged, beat-heavy fog remains settled from Stone and its predecessor, The Redeemer, two of the more fascinating albums from last year.
One might first notice Blunt’s decision to work with Joanne Robertson again, who’s vocals have turned up all over his recent projects. Her plaintive singing is mixed front and center on much of “SKIN FADE”. Blunt supports Robertson with crystal clear church bells, crisp, dull, and unquantized old-school drum patterns, and saxophone drones. “SKIN FADE” almost seems to be produced to maintain both accessibility and distance – like Inland Empire‘s digitally filmed hyperreality, this crispness and upfront production creates discomfort out of familiarity.
Blunt only appears near the end of the mix to speak-sing – “Whose girl wanna get picked up tonight/Fuck, it’s just another one/Pull it back for another one/Then I’m gone”. Maybe this is some recognition of his habit to completely consume himself in the project, under the distance of skepticism, only to abandon it again. The constant string of uploaded and deleted tracks and seemingly-deserted projects and partnerships serve to support this. But we are strung along, eating up any scrap left behind, constantly hungry for more. Hopefully that rumored new Hippos in Tanks LP comes through. Until then, stream below.