Block35 featuring Thane: Carolina Blue

Noted aficionado of yesteryear Block35 teams up with Thane for Carolina Blue, an LP existing somewhere at the intersection a Billy Ocean TV special and the credit roll of a Cinemax “erotic thriller.” The title track is a triumph of songwriting and powerful hooks delivered by Toronto vocalist Thane, who lends his skills to five of the six original tracks on here (two others are instrumental mixes).

Block35 for his/her/their part has the atmospherics down pat: from the thunderous amphitheater drum hits to the hyper-compressed synths and cascade of chord progressions, this really could have slid off the soundtrack to Alan Rudolph’s Choose Me or some other film with highly stylized visuals, even by the plastic aesthetics of the ’80s. And the songwriting carries it through. At times, as with “Neon Lights,” it almost floats into freestyle – there’s a relentless positivity that would seem cloying if it weren’t for the supreme competence of everyone involved.

The title track was released as a single in August and the full LP is out now via Bandcamp.