The Blaze is both moving and transitory on new track ‘FACES’ from forthcoming album ‘DANCEHALL’
As with any genre, there are catchphrases that are unique to it and it alone. Emotional dance music is one such phrase that comes to mind. It’s one that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and certainly, it’s one that can be overused and overstated. Is this music actually saying anything, one might ask. But more importantly, does it matter? Opinions aside, the question of substance matters greatly for the French electronic duo, The Blaze.
In the duo’s cinematic breakthrough, their video for “Territory,” they challenge the concept of male fragility. The video opens with two men in tears, hugging, and it’s a reunion so pure that even its viewer, a total stranger, might too be moved to tears.
Moonlight Director Barry Jenkins, another challenger of the aforementioned, recently went on to tell The New York Times‘ Joe Caramanica that the first time he watched the video he “had an experience.” Jenkins continued, “It’s almost like a ballet in a certain way, the camera is so active. It’s participating in this dance,” — and there is actual dancing in The Blaze’s music, plenty of it.
As the duo’s fully embraced the musical project and used it as a means to challenge perception and the world we’re living in, they’ve announced their debut album DANCEHALL, named for the social space — not to be confused with the reggae sub-genre. DANCEHALL, instead, is a tribute to the birth of the spaces in the 1940’s. On “FACES” the two capture the fleeting, simpler moments on the dance floors, when the only way to listen to your favorite artist was to come together — bodies moving together as one.
“FACES” follows The Blaze’s “Heaven.”Alongside their first releases “Virile” and “Territory,” the sumptuous video, completes a triptych.
DANCEHALL is out September 7 via Animal63/Sony Music U.K./RCA Records.
Photo Credit: Benjamin Loyseau
Categories: Music