Wordcolour - Bluster EP

Named as One To Watch in 2021 by The Guardian, London-based artist Wordcolour returns to Houndstooth with a new single ‘Bluster’

In Wordcolour’s own words, "all the way back in January 2021, when the UK was entering its second national lockdown, I set myself the task of trying to write a club track. I wanted to avoid the lockdown temptation to write melancholic, dreamy dance music, and so found myself trying to remember what the club sounded and felt like at a time when raving was a distant memory.

The result, Bluster, continues some of the club experiments I began on my first EP "Tell Me Something", but with a beefed-up heavier sound aimed at slow, chunky techno sets. Like that first record, this track has a sense of humour - constantly cutting in playful bits of vocal and drum detail. Both the title and the artwork imply an undue swagger - a sense of winging it through changeable unpredictable weather conditions: a combination that, for me, sums up the feel of this track as well as the circumstances in which it was made."

“You might find that the piano playing at the beginning seems a little out of tune - that’s because I’m not using the standard western scale known as equal temperament. I’ve actually tuned the piano in line with the alp horn, the national musical instrument of Switzerland. It’s a really long (like, several metre-long) horn with no holes in the sides so it actually plays in a natural harmonic overtone series, so I think it gives the piano a beautiful clear resonance as well as (to western ears) a sort of gentle wooziness. The rhythmic elements of the track are inspired pretty much directly by the original, just translated into a quicker tempo with some added sound design. I’m really interested to hear what people think!”
- Djrum


“As soon as I heard the original, I was immediately struck by the precise architecture and high fidelity of Wordcolour's approach. It was intimidating to remix this track because it's so funky but also so careful and considered. Overcompensating, I made a lot of harsh noisy dub-stew remixes out of it, and then threw them all away and started over with the piano. I asked M.C. Schmidt to play some new piano along with Wordcolour's core riffs, slightly detuned so there's some friction, and the whole thing opened like a flower and here we are. I was really honoured to take part in this.”
- The Pink Soft Truth


“Really enjoyed the natural feel of the original wordcolour track :) just wanted to build off that floaty type feeling and drift”
- DJ Python

Release date: 01st April 2022

Tracklist:

Bluster (Original)
Bluster (The Soft Pink Truth Remix)
Bluster (Djrum Remix)
Bluster (DJ Python Remix)