Lightspeed Champion's Dev Hynes Reinvents Himself as Blood Orange for New LP

BY Alex HudsonPublished Jun 2, 2011

Pop master Dev Hynes has already made his mark as a member of Test Icicles and under the moniker Lightspeed Champion. Now, the songwriter is going by the alias Blood Orange and is gearing up to release the Coastal Grooves LP on August 30 via Domino.

The songs were written during a three-year stint in NYC, where a press release reports that Hynes "worked on songs in his bedroom, compiling them onto mixtapes that he would listen to while travelling around the city at night, letting the city's nocturnal ecosystem seep into the music in his headphones."

The result is "informed by the equally neon atmosphere of Chris Issack, Billy Idol, '80s Japanese pop such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and French singer F.R David." It was also apparently inspired by "the identity blurring work of transgender icons such as Octavia St. Laurent and the playful high-gloss nihilism of Gregg Araki movies"

The album was produced by Ariel Rechtshaid in Los Angeles. Before it's out on our side of the Pacific though, it will drop on August 8 in the UK.

See the tracklist below, and listen to the sultry, vaguely funky single "Sutphin Boulevard" at the bottom of the page.

Coastal Grooves:

1. "Forget It"
2. "Sutphin Boulevard"
3. "I'm Sorry We Lied"
4. "Can We Go Inside Now?"
5. "S'cooled"
6. "Complete Failure"
7. "Instantly Blank (The Goodness)"
8. "The Complete Knock"
9. "Are You Sure You're Really Busy?"
10. "Champagne Coast"

Latest Coverage