The Portland trio Blouse will release their second LP Imperium via Captured Tracks on September 17th. For the new record, the band sought a more immediate approach by putting drum machines and synthesizers aside in place of guitars, bass, and a real set of drums. The result is immediately apparent on the track “A Feeling Like This” where crisp, clean guitar-lines intertwine, and singer Charlie Hilton’s voice reminds one of Hope Sandavol’s, for a sound that is less 80’s electro-pop, and more Paisley Underground. While there was a delicacy to the music on their 2011, self-titled debut, and at times that came across as a degree of shyness or diffidence, “A Feeling Like This” is confident in it’s direction, while still maintaining it’s mysterious and ethereal nature. In describing the new album Hilton says, “Imperium refers to illusory power, unforgiving but fragile. The sounds of the record and the feeling of making it are the same thing to me. It was always leading us somewhere but we had to be careful not to crush it.”
