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Total Blue
Each generation gets the chance to turn dollar bin detritus into gold. Freak-folk dug into cheap acoustic records while a 21st century embrace of Italo and disco is no doubt fueled by discarded 12”s from that bygone time. Total Blue – an LA trio featuring Alex Talan, Nicky Benedek, and Anthony Calonico – suggest that the thrills of cheap ‘80s jacuzzi jazz and new age might soon bring about a reassessment of that long-disdained sound on their smooth debut. The earmarks of that padded shoulder era are all here: Linn drums, rainsticks, fretless bass, muted trumpet, DX-7 pan flute setting. But rather than come across as tongue-in-cheek pastiche, Total Blue take that sonic palette and make it ethereal and muggy, an Henri Rousseau junglescape aglow in Miami Vice neon.