Track Listing

1. Allies
2. First Steps...Last Stand
3. Holding Ground
4. The Electric Complement
5. Gaining Time
6. 100's & 1000's
7. Look To Your Laurels
8. Down The Days
9. Red And Shine
10. What Can Be Done To Right A Wrong
11. Distant But Not Forgotten Shores
12. Writing Home
13. Last Of Old England

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40435 in Music
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Make that first step into a blue state
Blue Sates were once a trio but have now subsumed down to a solo project for founder Andy Dragazis.Their albums also used to be distinctive electronic sound collages with lyrics , proper songs if you like. First Steps Into is mostly instrumental with the odd treated vocal sample like on superb opening track "Allies" or the skittish rock styling's of "Holding Ground" .
Listening to this album though , you would never guess it's the work of one man .Oh sure guest musicians add violin, cello, viola and additional percussion but the vision is all from one set of eyes and one big bustling brain. It's lush, expansive, esoteric and melds disparate styles-electronic , rock, soul , jazz ambient , pop - to mostly fascinating and satisfying , occasionally inspired degrees. There are elements of many artists here-Morricone, David Axelrod , Air, Eno, Jean Michel Jarre. The elegiac string drenched "100s and 1000s" even sounds like something from a Michael Nyman score. Any way you view it ,that's an impressive list and while the album may not live up to the colossal promise such names engender ( they were names this listener pulled out at random , others may disagree and cite other examples) the album ends up being far , far more than some lame exercise in coffee table atmospherics and suburban soundtracks.
Sometimes First Steps Into does drift into rather aimless and prosaic noodling like on the mercifully brief one" Distant But Not Forgotten " which is actually soon forgotten but those moments are thankfully rare. "What Can Be Done To Right A Wrong" sounds like a Motown stomper reworked by 4AD greats Colourbox . "The Electric Compliment" adds mesmeric widescreen guitars to the equation and recalls shoe gazing moments of grandeur like Slowdives "Catch The Breeze" before it morphs into languidly beautiful strings. "First Steps Last Stand" is as funky as prime Isaac Hayes but still sounds like John Barry "Allies "is pop music filtered through irradiated gauze while "Last Of Old England" is music from the Last Night Of The Proms if it was held at The Ministry Of Sound and ends the album on a vibrant dramatic note.
It would be pushing it a bit to claim that Dragazis is pioneering a whole new sound or pushing the boundaries if what can be achieved with music but his canny amalgamation of sounds allied to a sagacious ear for a diverting melody is most welcome. A lovely aural bath of an album.

Made for the summer we never had!!
Outstanding. One of them real quality musical moments. No doubt this will be overlooked by millions of people. Have a quick listen to allies on my space. Its like melting ice!! Beautiful.

Very Blue States!!
This is a fantastic album from the very first play..... If you like Blue States then defo buy this one!!