White Vinyl
Romance out there single handedly resurrecting that 2010 Tri Angle sound with what must be close to a tenth record in three years. You tend to find such prolific runs when an artist lands so confidently on a specific idea, which is also a roundabout way of concluding that its business as usual on Fade Into You, chopped and screwed vocal sample-derived ambience with a heavy bias for emotional grandiosity and near-religious fervour. I still think Mono No Aware, and particularly Yves Tumor and Malibu, were key forerunners for this kind of sound, the dovetailing of R&B sensuality into blown out ambient aesthetics, and Romance repeatedly does a fine job of aligning that concept to a seductive narrative - you read it in the overt melodrama of the song titles (Take My Breath Away; Prelude To A KIss), and you feel it in what essentially amounts to a 40 minute pitched down edit of Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet. Unapologetically epic fair.
