Coastal Grooves
Dev Hynes is a man of many talents, having dabbled in musical excursions as diverse as skronky dance punk (Test Icicles) and oddball folksiness (Lightspeed Champion). He’s also a producer and writer and has worked with artists like Florence + The Machine and Sky Ferreira. As Blood Orange, Hynes slips into something sleek, sexy, and transgressive, with a collection inspired by the film *Paris Is Burning*, a touching 1990 document of transvestite club culture in New York City. *Coastal Grooves* is a beautiful thing, with a hint of sadness and a palpable desire lurking under the sheen of ultra-cool confidence. The single “Sutphin Boulevard” is a slow, late-night strut, with a stripped-down ambience that glitters with spiraling, metallic guitar flakes and a terse snare cracking out a slow, catwalk-worthy backbeat. Hynes’ guitar morphs throughout *Coastal Grooves* as a synth might, taking on various forms as the song calls for them. The midway point of “Forget It” breaks open with a bona fide guitar solo, and on “Champagne Coast” he coaxes an Asian flavor out of the instrument.
Devonté Hynes has produced a lot of music. Some for himself: Testicicles, Lightspeed Champion and some for others: Basement Jaxx, Florence & The Machine, Theophilus London, Solange Knowles, Cassie, Diana Vickers. Somewhere in between all of this, Blood Orange was created. Hynes has been living in New York City for the past three years where he has been concentrating on writing and producing for other artists. He simultaneously worked on songs in his bedroom, compiling them onto mixtapes that he would listen to while traveling around the city at night, letting the city’s nocturnal ecosystem seep into the music in his headphones. Informed by the equally neon atmosphere of Chris Issack, Billy Idol, 80's Japanese pop such as Yellow magic Orchestra and French singer F.R David, Hynes took the songs that form ‘Coastal Grooves’ on a trip to the West Coast where he started turning the ideas into an album with producer Ariel Rechtshaid in L.A. Alongside the music he heard playing in after-hours bars, Hynes drew inspiration from the identity blurring work of transgender icons such as Octavia St Laurent and the playful high-gloss nihilsm of Gregg Araki movies. Blood Orange is the music of a seedy yet inspirational New York night time.
Dev Hynes follows Test Icicles and Lightspeed Champion with a new solo project, a highly stylish album that frequently forgoes things like melodies, energy, and vocal choruses in favor of slinky, solitary guitar lines and seductively spare, post-punk atmospherics.
Here, the seeds of solo project [a]Blood Orange[/a] were sown in between working with wildly disparate folk like [a]Diana Vickers[/a] and [a]Theophilus London[/a], recording under the more familiar [a]Lightspeed Champion[/a] moniker and – more brilliantly – becoming a consultant for [a]Jay-Z[/a]’s fashion brand, Rocawear.
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With the inauguration of new project Blood Orange, it waits to be seen whether any of his work as Lightspeed Champion will receive a similar dismissal.
Earlier this year Dev Hynes, best know for his work in Test Icicles and as Lightspeed Champion, unleashed the first single under his latest moniker Blood Orange.
Dev Hynes's latest incarnation gives the lie to those who believe he's an imitator, says <strong>Ally Carnwath</strong>
Dev Hynes, aka Lightspeed Champion, returns with a new sound aping Duran Duran and China Crisis. It's not as naff as it sounds, says <strong>Paul Macinnes</strong>
Three years later sees Hynes releasing a debut album, Coastal Grooves, for his side project Blood Orange.