Washed Out | Small Black
Lovepump United is putting out a collaborative 7” split featuring Washed Out and Small Black, with each band remixing a single off the other’s debut EP.
Washed Out is one-man act Ernest Greene, who played his first New York City gig back in October. At that time, BrooklynVegan wrote: “He’ll play just one NYC show (his second live show ever) one day before CMJ…I tried to get him to open the BrooklynVegan CMJ show…(one day later), but he said he can’t even stay in town that long due to personal commitments back home” – he was getting married. So that was a good excuse. Washed Out is balmy and atmospheric, lo-fi synthpop at its best. Debut EP Life of Leisure was released digitally in August, followed up by a cassette-only EP High Times in September.
Small Black is Long Island duo Josh Kolenik and Ryan Heyner, although they add Pitchfork.TV contributors Juan Pieczanski and Jeff Curtin to their live act – a nice connection for them. At first, I wanted to say the Small Black buzz is due to the Pitchfork relationship – but after seeing them live at the VICE / VBS.TV Holiday Party, opening for Cold Cave at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, we decided to give their self-titled debut EP a good, hard listen. Like Washed Out, it’s more of an acquired taste, but they definitely stand out. The more I listen, the more I want to listen.
The vinyl split is out on January 26th, but you can pre-order it at Insound here. Below are the original tracks…