Aaron Frazer - Into The Blue [Frosted Coke Bottle Clear Vinyl]

Dead Oceans

£27.52

Format: Coloured Vinyl LP
Catalogue No.: DOC320LP-C1
Barcode: 0656605162034
Release Date: 28 Jun 2024
Genre: Soul

 “Into The Blue’ is the clearest portrait of who I am as an artist. It’s me through and through,” says multi-instrumentalist Aaron Frazer (of Durand Jones & the Indications). A daring blend of soul, psychedelia, spaghetti western, disco, gospel and hip-hop, ‘Into The Blue’ represents the impressive range of Frazer’s sonic talents.
 Frazer maintains the unmistakable falsetto and classic songwriting he’s known for, but plants ‘Into The Blue’ firmly in the now with a hip-hop mentality at its core, weaving together genres and production techniques to form something new.
 ‘Into The Blue’ was conceived, like so many classic records, out of actual heartbreak. Frazer moved cross-country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and embarked on a journey that’s reflected in the album’s themes of grief, loneliness, and searching for healing.
 “‘Into The Blue’ really means heading into the unknown. That has been the last year of my life and I’m still in the blue,” Frazer explains. “But there are also songs here that celebrate love and the giddiness of a new relationship and all that. That’s part of a breakup to me, processing the whole thing, remembering the things that were right as much as the things that were wrong.”
 Frazer wrote on every track and played several of the instruments on the album. The title track is a haunting, resolute anthem, combining cinematic strings and tough-as-nails breakbeats as Frazer heads west. “Here I go, to a place where the broken heart knows,” he sings. “It’s all I can do. Back into the blue.” ‘Payback’ is an explosive dancefloor heater, featuring shimmering tambourines and driving basslines. Northern soul drums meet snarling fuzz guitar, hurdling towards its epic conclusion.
 The album features moments of towering arrangements, recalling David Axelrod and Ennio Morricone, balanced by rawness, incorporating iPhone recordings and one-take vocals. For ‘Into The Blue’, Frazer enlisted GRAMMY-winner Alex Goose as coproducer, known for his crate-digging samples and collaborations with hip-hop artists like Freddie Gibbs, Madlib and Brockhampton. Frazer also experimented with samples for the first time on a record, drawing from unexpected sources like 90s R&B group Hi-Five.
 Though ‘Into The Blue’ is born out of heartbreak, Frazer hopes it leaves listeners with a sense of optimism. “You know, you can still laugh on a day when you’re grieving,” he says, “there’s no peaks without valleys,” he says, but ‘Into The Blue’ sees Aaron Frazer at new heights.
 LP available on Frosted Coke Bottle clear coloured vinyl LP and black vinyl LP.

Tracklisting
Thinking of You
Into The Blue
Fly Away
Payback
Dime feat. Cancamusa
Perfect Strangers
Time Will Tell
I Don’t Wanna Stay
Play On
Easy To Love
The Fool