miXendorp – bluestronica EP nr 1

Ah, but is it blues??
Shortly after I “discovered” the blues back in the day via Mayall, Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac etc. I also got interested in electronic sounds c/o Tangerine Dream and similar bands. The two streams of music have been constants in my life since (among many others) to the point where now I make music it often starts with an ambient drone and adds bluesy slide. So the title of this alongside a cover photo of a complex modular synthesizer system piqued my interest. It’s a 3 track instrumental cd which he describes as “xperimental trance electro blues”. ‘Rimzi’ opens with blues harmonica wailing over I assume synth generated rhythm track with an almost North Mississippi Hill Country feel. Some nice guitar/slide thrown into the mix. ‘Precedence’ keeps the Hill Country vibe, opening with guitar then adding the beats, some nice overdriven guitar sounds in there as well. ‘SwingStraight’ opens with boogie bass and guitar sounds overlaid with vocal effects for an almost “standard” 12 bar. A review elsewhere has said “the down home qualities of the source material jostle intriguingly with the superimposed urban beats”, and I guess that describes it well. Not too much information available about miXendorp, so it’s difficult to know how much is live instruments and how much is electronically manipulated samples. Sounds good though. If you’re up for trance like blues, and not too sniffy about whether the sounds are live or electronically produced have a listen. Is it blues then? Well it sounds pretty bluesy and the ep has garnered lots of airplay on blues programs around the UK and Europe, so that sounds like a yes. Available from the usual digital platforms.
Arthur Ely