The last year has been good to St. Petersburg’s Blind Man’s Colour [pictured] — they were featured on Stereogum, blogged about by Kanye West and became labelmates with Grizzly Bear on Kanine Records. Their psychedelic 2009 debut, Season Dreaming, drew instant comparisons to Animal Collective in the blogosphere.
But Friday night at New World Brewery as they celebrated the release of their new six-song EP, Wooden Blankets, the lush choir of electronic, oceanic ambiance from the record was replaced with simplicity. An eager crowd of followers, packed closely for warmth, gathered under the wooden awning and cheered on Kyle Wyss and Orhan Chettri, who were performing as a duo without a drummer or bassist, on keys and guitar, respectively. Wyss also brought programmed hip-hop and tribal beats to the table to accompany the duo’s mellow and seldom-processed vocals.
Blind Man’s Colour left me wanting more. The songs were good but never fleshed-out enough to captivate and at this early point in their musical careers, they just didn’t have the kind of magnetic stage presence that kept me interested in what they were playing. Despite those shortcomings, the Kanye-approved “Jimmy Dove” was a melodic highlight of the six-song set. [More pics + review after the jump.]
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2010.
