Dev Hynes is Always Thinking About the Past

"June is dying and it's hot in New York City: Greenwich Village sounds like coughing saxophones and bleating car horns, laughter drifting off fire escapes, basketballs kissing pavement, a window yawning wide and a mother calling down to her son on his bicycle. Which is to say, it sounds a bit like a Blood Orange song - balmy, layered with voices, thick with the poetry of urban life."

"Since 2011, Hynes has been crafting his wistful, timeless pop songs as Blood Orange, songs that feel cosmopolitan and fluid and, often, like a long embrace. Music to listen to from a supine position on your bedroom floor, remembering a place you've never been to. Music that he has made largely from his own bedroom since he was at secondary school, because he prefers that to the traditional studio set-up."

"He has made film scores (Palo Alto, Passing); TV soundtracks ( We Are Who We Are, In Treatment); dance-punk songs (as part of Test Icicles); country-rock songs (as the solo artist Lightspeed Champion); songs for other people (Sky Ferreira, Solange, FKA twigs, Mariah Carey); classical symphonies (accompanied by orchestras in London, Toronto and Sydney); and dreamlike, heartbreaking songs that combine field recordings, the many instruments he can play (guitar, cell"

Devonté Hynes turned 40 in December and has lived in New York City for nearly two decades. Essex Honey shifts his sound from city-layered pop toward a more pastoral, open and orchestral palette that can feel gloomier and occasionally ecstatic. He began making music in his bedroom at secondary school and continues to prefer bedroom production over traditional studios. His career spans film scores, TV soundtracks, dance-punk with Test Icicles, country-rock as Lightspeed Champion, collaborations with prominent artists, and classical symphonies performed with orchestras in London, Toronto and Sydney. His songs often combine field recordings and many instruments he plays, producing wistful, timeless pop that feels cosmopolitan and intimate.

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