Article by: Sam Wolloch
COLOR BLIND, the second album from pluko, is a true work of art, as the young and talented producer continues his journey of “building up a picture of how the body feels.” Similar to his first album and mix tape, pluko painstakingly constructs a sonic landscape to explore how the body feels and reacts to the many different realities of being in love. He does so in such a thoughtful and genuine way, allowing his listeners to connect with those emotions through his meticulous musical production, one can’t help but marvel at his newest masterpiece.
As a whole, COLOR BLIND paints a picture of the cycle of love, from the light airy feeling of falling for someone to the turbulence and confusion when the person no longer returns those same feelings. And while the album flows together so well as a whole, there is also a wide range of variety to its tone and style. There is truly something for everyone, so who’s to know which track the speaker is talking about when they say at the end of the intro “I’ma play your favorite song.”
The album begins with “go,” as the static of an old turntable and some deep breathing builds into a pulsating crescendo and makes way for melodic synths. Songs like “blessings” (featuring Nate Traveller) and “used to” (with Cassette Tapes) are really clean and polished pop tunes with clear vocals and smooth sounds. The former adds fun kicks to a happy-go-lucky tropical tune as the singer is counting their blessings, while the latter is more matter-of-fact as the singer comes to grips that “you don’t love me like you used to.”
In contrast, sweet tracks like “seventeen” and “your skin” have a more synthetic and surreal sound, utilizing distorted vocals and a rougher back beat to tell their story. The song “higher” really has that Foreign Family feel, as one can envision themselves hearing it at the main stage. Also impressive are the songs like “the lovely one” and “i hope it’s not goodbye,” that convey their message without words at all, as pluko carefully crafts his picture of sounds.
The most moving elements of COLOR BLIND though, are the brief moments within the songs, where pluko so artfully changes the mood and allows listeners time to reflect. One example would be flipping through broadcast feeds after the heavy drop of ‘rainbow,” and another the calm and clarity at the end of the scattered track “reality distortion.” Most interesting to me, were the French samples on these two tracks, so I needed to know more.
“French is my favorite language, I think it’s so beautiful,” pluko shared. “I wanted a few things to help tie together some key subjects in the album… and I put a few of the recordings throughout the album to play a part in the bigger story of the record!” This gives further proof of the thought and effort that pluko put into creating the album, but that’s not all. Just last night, on Proximity’s YouTube channel, pluko unveiled a breathtaking film project he helped to edit and create, giving viewers a visual journey for COLOR BLIND as well.
COLOR BLIND is truly a work of art, and even more impressive that its depth and creativity came from someone who is only days after their 20th birthday. Pluko continues to show the vision and skill that Foreign Family recognized when they signed this talented producer, as he takes another successful step forward in “building up a picture of how the body feels.”
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