Album Review: Angel's Pulse [Mixtape] by Blood Orange

Creative restlessness has been a hallmark of Dev Hynes' career since day one. From his days in Test Icicles through his time as Lightspeed Champion to his more recent projects as Blood Orange, Hynes has never felt comfortable occupying the same space for long.   We get the hear the fruits of that musical evolution in the form of albums like Freetown Sound or last year's excellent Negro Swan. But the progression doesn't happen in such neat silos. Rather, it's part of a continuum, one his fans rarely get to see: Hynes has admitted to ….

Full Review >>

Less than 11 months after 'Negro Swan', Dev Hynes returns with 'Angel's Pulse', a short mix of impressionistic sketches chock-full of collabs and spanning all manner of genres. It's for this that fans of the former will appreciate it. Save for 'Birmingham', an imagined response to the white supremacist bombing of 16 th Street Baptist Church, the mixtape's markedly less political, and relies less on autobiography.

Full Review >>

As Blood Orange, New York-based artist Dev Hynes has released four deeply impressive albums of glossy, genre-fluid sounds. Angel's Pulse is something a little different - described by London-born Hynes as a mixtape, the distinction comes in this being a release of between-projects material: an epilogue to last year's exquisite Negro Swan. Normally, Hynes keeps these post-album sketches private, sharing with friends, sometimes even slipping a mixtape to a stranger on the street.

Full Review >>