Blackbird Blackbird - Tangerine Sky (2014)

Blackbird Blackbird, aka the Hawaiian-born, Bay Area-based producer Mikey Maramag, is one of our favorite indie-dance artists of the moment. His style beautifully connects the dots between hypnotizing electronica, dreamy pop and profound complex melodies that will work both your mind and your dancing sneakers. While Blackbird (we're on a first name basis) has been on Platinum's radar for some time, his latest LP Tangerine Sky totally blew us away, and we knew we needed to know more about how he crafted this opus. Luckily, Blackbird is a nice guy, with a high-quality camera and a super cute dog named Brisket. Read below to see the various pieces of hardware Mikey used on various tracks on the LP and maybe you'll be inspired to enter the studio yourself! The "sky" is the limit!

As the title track of Blackbird Blackbird's second LP Tangerine Sky opens, a warm polyphony of synths bounce radiantly to the beat of a driving kick drum presenting what seems to be a sort of instrumental prelude to the rest of the album. Suddenly, two and half minutes in, the dreamy vocals of Mikey Maramag appear all distant and blissed-out like a 3 O'clock wine buzz. For a guy who cut his teeth as the drummer for a hardcore band (Murder Practice), Maramag's solo work as Blackbird Blackbird is about as sunny as it gets, having more in common with the chillwave warmth of Washed Out or the more tranquil sides of Ulrich Schnauss. While an album like this is enjoyable enough for its peaceful, mood-setting aesthetic, Tangerine Sky is also fortunate enough to contain some legitimate songwriting. Distressed lo-fi textures, Casio tones, and clever sequencing along with live guitars, bass, and drums make up the core of the album's sound bed which wraps around some neatly melodic dream pop tunes like "Love Unlimited," "Darlin Dear," and "Rare Candy." Some of the tweaked samples recall a gentler, hazed-out Passion Pit and like many artists working in that sonic bailiwick, the throbbing compression on a few of the tracks can become a bit trying. Still, it's a stylistic choice that hardly deters from the songs, which coast along easily on a wave of homemade electro charm and Maramag's sweet, late afternoon harmonies. Though beguiling in any climate, Tangerine Sky could easily become a soundtrack to the summer months.

Tracklist:

01. Tangerine Sky 04:45
02. Love Unlimited 03:21
03. Feel It In My Bones 04:02
04. Darlin' Dear 03:47
05. There Is Nowhere 02:58
06. Treehouse 05:48
07. Summer's Almost Here 04:31
08. Polaris 02:43
09. Rare Candy 03:19
10. Beasts 03:52
11. Grow Old With Me (Don't Let Go) 04:06