Blood Orange - Angel’s Pulse

Arriving a year after Blood Orange’s most successful album ‘Negro Swan’, seemingly Dev Hynes has strung together a few unfinished offcuts from that LP and packaged it up as ‘Angel’s Pulse’. But that’s OK - mixtapes grant artists the opportunity to stray from the path a little and indulge in a sub-plot that doesn’t impact the main story.

There’s a lot to love. A wonky, slightly out-of-tune guitar gives the sweet sentiment of opener ‘I Wanna C U’ a rough edge as it underlies the outro’s luscious harmonies. In other spots his love affair with glossy ‘80s aesthetics continues - most prominently on highlight ‘Dark & Handsome’ which features a pitch-shifted Toro Y Moi, and the smooth balladry of ‘Birmingham’.

Clearly a meticulous musician in proper album mode, Dev lands on some fruitful territory when he loosens up a little. ‘Something To Do’ features some screeching off-kilter guitar play, ‘Baby Florence (Figure)’ is driven by a hypnotic, fluttery rhythm section and ‘Benzo’ is bookended with the sort of manipulated cello sequence that you could imagine Jonny Greenwood presenting to Paul Thomas Anderson in the edit suite.

While the mixtape is clearly still rooted in the world of ‘Negro Swan’, ‘Angel’s Pulse’ proves that sticking around in older ground for a little longer can still bear some sweet fruit.