Baby Bleu and Rose Sélavy pair together perfectly—both of the Austin groups have an incredible ear for melody and a cool energy based in neat driving guitar riffs. And both have dabbled in different spheres: Baby Bleu devoted a record to pop tracks with breezy synth washes before settling into a hazy guitar sound, and the couple of tracks available from Rose Sélavy find them experimenting across the dream pop spectrum in songs that recall The Field Mice in some places, Wild Nothing in others. The split tape, just announced from Merdurhaus Records (recent home to releases by Hovvdy and Loafer), finds the similar ends of their sounds meeting. Glossed is an apropos name, given how smooth and serendipitous the two tracks they’ve previewed feel together.
Though it’s tough to make out the lyrics on Baby Bleu’s “Rinse” with the the vocals so heavy on delay, they’re teeming with something that feels like concern. With a wash of noise that gives the whole track a very Loveless tinge, Baby Bleu nevertheless keep us on our toes with their sunny, novel pockets of instrumentation, the ringing lead guitar coasting over rolling drums.
“Content” opens out into a welcome daydream. Rose Sélavy have managed to mesh a funky groove with surfy riffs, and the mix feels right at home against the cool vocal harmonies. It’s also mildly heartbreaking—against the danceable synth-guitar combo, we hear, “Content with how it would feel running away / well, there’s nothing that’s left / there’s not enough to stay.” The solo that wanders at the song’s close brings that dream of leaving to fruition.
Glossed is available for pre-order now over at Merdurhaus’ website.
