Thursday 18 May 2023

NEW #73 Blusher

 

Last week I was at Great Escape Festival in Brighton, the multi-venue festival where careful planning, running between stages and dodging the queues becomes a fine art.

I managed to see 36 full performances whilst I was there and so I thought it was time to pick a couple of acts that I saw that I haven’t written about on the blog that hit my ‘shows potential’ button.

First up today is Blusher. An Australian pop three piece who remind me very much of 2012-2016 blog-wave era pop; their music is shiny, upbeat and you can dance round your handbag to it. Someone described it to me as ‘music for the gays’ and whilst I don’t fully agree with that level of exclusivity (after all music is for everyone, right?) there’s undeniably a hint of a door left open by Robyn on tracks like Dead End and Backbone. These are pulsing electronic bops with hooky choruses and plenty of gloss in the production.

In the live context the band switch between serious muso types, rocking the bass and keyboards, covering MGMT in their set, to full on hands-in-the-air cool-pop goddesses, throwing in some bedroom mirror dance routines and lyrics that celebrate the joys of dancing to forget: "One more reason to take the floor, call the girls up and dance until he’s gone," they sing on Backbone. "I still want the long nights, dancing with my drunk friends," on Dead End.

Their first ever UK gig in Brighton was in the neon blue lit Zahara nightclub and it was packed with music industry delegates. It was very well received - they certainly got hips wiggling and toes tapping. A good start here for Jade, Lauren and Miranda who are the three people who make up Blusher. A debut EP is to follow on July 14th.

Blusher - Dead End


Blusher - Backbone

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