No one really knows anything about producer Blue Angels. His label, UNO NYC, is upfront about this. They once told RA that they “don’t know much about him except that he’s a young kid in Maryland and very talented.”
Following last year’s Vaces—which is up on UNO’s site as a free download, and is accompanied by a surreal, pumpkin-themed music video—Blue Angels’ new EP, High Dive, sits somewhere between Sinjin Hawke and Holy Other. Even in its darkest, most industrial moments, there’s a clear sensitivity towards ambience and melody. You can hear it in the agitated corners of “Why,” where a submerged vocal sample conjures a mood at once sinister and sincere. The recursive, lo-fi crunch of “Floss” manages to tread this line for a spellbinding seven and a half minutes. In the face of Blue Angels’ utter anonymity, what we’re left with is simply the music. The EP works as an invitation, beckoning listeners toward the shadowy worlds it already inhabits.
Over email, Blue Angels offered AdHoc a single line — a hieroglyph awaiting translation: “I am feeling much better these days.” High Dive is out May 18th on UNO.