Ohio-based producer Spencer Radcliffe, a.k.a Blithe Field, caught our ear in '11 with his Two-Hearted record on Waaga. Much like early Bibio recordings, Blithe Field is in tune with the organic sounds of our waking life, except rather than muse with the white noise of the city, Blithe Field makes sample-based music sound human.
Blithe Field is like a band built from an entire community, with Radcliffe as the conductor. Within his record, a neighbor's daugther, a lengthy voicemail message caller, a college professor, and an open mic night folk singer can all be rotating members of Blithe Field. So much of music is focused on our muscular and nerve systems, either compelling us to move or agitate our brains for better or wosre, but Radcliffe is purely interested in the circulatory system and stimulating our blood.
Radcliffe has always taken special interest in parenting and the passing of lineage and knowledge. It can be found on “Crushing” from his Two-Hearted record and it appears again in our debut “Perry St 2”. A daughter is timid about going inside an unknown space, but a motherly voice calms her worries. Radcliffe catches several rhythms in the little girl's ramblings, and builds a song from her broken language and singing of the alphabet. It's bothersome to toss out a phrase like “rhythm of life”, but it exists and while that is mostly attributed to musicians who can record a car alarm into a dance beat, Blithe Field is purer to the axiom.
The full Warm Blood album is streaming at Portals, hear it here.
Warm Blood is out now on Poulpe Mort and Messy Life in the US.
