blue twenty-seven: Check!!!

C40 + download code

Back in 2015, when we guest curated SUPERNORMAL festival, one act we brought over consisted of three very cool residents of Tokyo, Japan, that collectively went by the name of Check!!!

Check!!! played a sort of improvised live techno gilded with spiralling fractals of Durutti Column guitar and built around a throbbing, almost aquatically funky electric bass.

An album was on the cards, but following an NTS Radio live session and the Supernormal appearance, the band - consisting of Blue Tapes mainstay Cherry, producer Tec (yes, the band name is a portmanteau), and sometime bassist Yan - dissipated.

Now, Cherry (aka Teruyuki Kurihara) has dug through the band’s archives to gift us with that long-awaited album! It’s a gentle, modest, but insistent work that combines lysergic acid house with tantalisingly hard-to-define washes of mood.

Sometimes I think it’s pop art techno, sometimes I think it’s just pop. Always, it is deeply blissful.

Should appeal to any fans of classic ambient, minimal house, the more meditative end of Krautrock or even old-school Factory Records heads.

Praise for blue twenty-seven:

“Featuring lo-fi grimy electronics and a flexibility regarding the groove, everything about blue twenty-seven has a DIY feeling to it. Techno, dance-rock, funk and a nod to 80s synth-pop all weave their way into the mix. Guitar work in particular lends a psychedelic air, helping to infuse the compositions with a carefree attitude, reminiscent of Can’s krautrock style at times.” - Beach Sloth

"Boy is this a good ‘un. A strangely curious and deeply alluring set that appears to cut across the generic divides constantly shifting back and forth (and occasionally left (field)) with such artistic and creative freedom it leaves you dizzy." - The Sunday Experience