Just another Friday night waiting for another reason to write about either Dean Blunt or James Ferraro, and what do I get? A Blunt/Ferraro collaboration called “Watch The Throne”! The 18-minute performance, recorded live to an incredibly talkative audience November 3 at the Soho House in Beverly Hills (after Blunt’s puzzling “White Flight” performance at the OHWOW Gallery earlier that day), features Blunt on vocals/Fender Rhodes and Ferraro on grand piano. Yes, you read that right: rather than being some sort of odd meeting between Blunt’s gritty comatose aesthetic and Ferraro’s crisp HD visions, “Watch The Throne” is marked instead by impressionistic chords, spacious phrasings, and suspended rhythms. Blunt’s vocals are as disconnected as the mood, with both artists seemingly feeling their way through this pensive, meandering number.
It’s unclear whether “Watch the Throne” refers to the collaboration, this particular performance, or something else (like, say, a collaboration between Jay-Z and Kanye West?), but in any case, there is a “Watch the Throne” tour coming soon, and I’m going to be all over it. Check out the performance here:
Meanwhile, Hippos In Tanks released James Ferraro’s new album Sushi earlier this week and is set to release a remixed/remastered version of Blunt’s The Narcissist II mixtape on November 26. Life is good.
• Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland: http://youtube.com/pollyjacobsen
• James Ferraro: https://twitter.com/#!/JFerraro_zip
• Hippos In Tanks: http://hipposintanks.net
More about: Dean Blunt
