Slipping in and out of consciousness, the only thing you know exists is the base drum. It beats like a heartbeat on every track – the rest flows, floats and cascades like a cinematic daydream. Blondes’ debut is slick and smooth dance music, which whole-heartedly encourages you, the listener, to lay back and lose yourself.

The Brooklyn duo, Sam Haar and Zach Steinman, are patient songwriters, leaving each synth line to slowly ease itself into the track during a generous amount of time. Hater, for instance, hardly changes for its seven-minute lifespan, instead circling on a pumping electro backline and high-end timbres.

Blondes aren’t finding new ground here, but they do occasionally stumble on passages of endless possibilities. The second half of Lover sounds like a tribal war chant has been caught on tape, ably accentuated by the musicians’ use of rhythm and electronics.

Other tracks are far too placid. Water and Pleasure are like set demo patterns on a newly acquired synthesizer – finding little originality, or reason, for me to sit through their extended times. When you write an album of similar BPM’s then surely you need to start thinking on ways to differentiate each track. Thankfully the pair use closer, Amber, to explore new territory. Its deep bass line barely moves, stumbling amid waves of ambient noise and retro-keys.

It’s an album produced to induce, creating trails of a meditative nature, though occasionally losing its way, and showing little intent to push the boundaries of music that is starting to get a little lazy.

-Dave Taylor-