EDGE RADIO RECOMMENDED: Rhye - 'BLOOD'

RHYE have released their highly anticipated sophomore album 'BLOOD' via Loma  Vista Recordings/Caroline Australia, a deeply personal record of hope and experience.

The distance from blog hype to road warriors was an unexpected evolution. RHYE first surfaced in 2013 with the critically exalted debut album Woman. Hitting the road extensively, songs originally conceived in the studio, were re-imagined by the live band and shifted, mutated and became entirely new creations. "We've spent the last few years on the road translating the Woman album from a studio project in to a full live experience," explains the group’s frontman Milosh. "With BLOOD it's been the opposite process; the music and sounds were really born out of the live environment and are built for performance."
 
If Woman served as an ethereal, romantic serenade, BLOOD is a cathartic, purgative response to what happens when a relationship dissolves. It’s a collection of songs about the transformation that arrives in the aftermath of one relationship ending and another beginning. In picking yourself up and finding joy again.

"There's a lot of summoning throughout the record," Milosh describes. "A new experience, a new life and a feeling of stepping into that life. 'Waste,' the opening song, is about the past. The songs that follow are summoning something new for the future."

"It isn't overly complex," Milosh explains. "Things aren't as quantized or controlled. It's not as rigid. The human intimacy had to come through the actual instrumentation this time around. We chose a sonic palette made up of familiar elements... things we automatically understand - piano, cello, bass lines, simple beats, and clear, concise vocals. The songs are about the familiarity."
 
From the sexually charged buzz of "Phoenix" to the aural temptation of "Sinful", the whole album follows the same template: no programmed drums, everything played live, with very few instances of production trickery or editing. It’s physical sounding; quietly intense; earthy, even. More than that though, it’s a human record, of human emotion, that stands out at a time when music feels increasingly synthetic. No wonder he called it 'BLOOD' - this is music to sustain you.

Words: Loma Vista/Caroline