Blue Presence

My record room was a total and utter mess. Pretty much all of the records that I have bought over the last two years just ended up on the floor in various piles, all of which had some kind of meaning. But it reached a point a few weeks ago where I was looking for something and absolutely could not find which pile it was in, and it was driving me craxy, which provided the motivation I needed to sort the mess out. So I recently spent quite a few hours over several evenings tidying up.= the room, and this also unearthed a small pile of records that I brought back from the States almost exactly a year ago that I hadn't listened to or put up on here. So I figured I should work my way through those next.

II am starting the backlog with this record by Bluebird titled 'Black Presence', which is presented on blue vinyl.

This record was originally released back in 2002 on CD format only. This vinyl pressing was put out in 2022 to mark the 20th anniversary. I purchased it in 2023, picked it up from Geoff's house in 2024, and here I am listening to it and writing about it in 2025. What a journey!

So most people know Bluebird as a band who once had a 12" on Revelation. Back when that record came out in 1997, I'm not sure that anyone who regularly bought records from Rev had a clue who the band was. The same is probably true today. I'm not sure I know of anyone who bought that record and liked it. Well anyway, Bluebird's bandcamp describes them as a 'Power-psych-punk-experimental band from Los Angeles, CA, USA'. I'm not going to disagree with that. This record sounds absolutely nothing like the other records of theirs that I have heard. This is more of a slow and gentle instrumental record. The bandcampe description of is as follows: 'A 10-part collection of hypnotic and amorphous, mostly instrumental tracks, featuring a wide range of guest musicians on largely improvised songs'. It's kinda like the mellower moments of Iceburn. This is actually a really 'nice' record, although definitely one for listening to late at night when trying to relax, or as working from home background music, rather than gym motivation.