Insomniac Records is raising the curtain on Bleu Clair’s highly anticipated ‘Prelude’ EP, a stunning six-track offering that foreshadows the blindingly bright future of house music’s hottest export.
At this point, the in-demand Indonesian producer needs no introduction. He’s toiled tirelessly over the last couple of years, fine-tuning a prolific discography that has transformed him into a veritable touchstone of the modern-day dancefloor.
From off-kilter grooves to the more nuanced numbers he’s crafted as of late, Bleu Clair has proven to be a breath of fresh air for the house music scene. In the time since making his debut on the Insomniac imprint last year, he’s made a calculated effort to expand his horizons without losing sight of the seminal style that so many of his contemporaries have tried to replicate.
Amid a skyrocketing artist profile, the forward-thinking phenom has not only homed in on his ever-evolving sonic identity, but he has also gone out of his way to champion likeminded creators from his homeland. His recent string of singles has been ripe with some of the island’s finest.
Jakarta’s bubbling vocal talent Jelita helped kick things off on the lustful “Have Me All,” laying down a lush topline to perfectly complement its shimmery rhythmic appeal. A few months later, previous collaborator and a fast-emerging artist in his own right, Jargen, came in to connect the dots on their proggy roller “Amani.”
And most recently, singer-songwriter Teza Sumendra carefully crooned over the futuristic flight of “Hyperspace.” Each of these collaborations have played an integral role in shaping the nail-biting saga of Bleu Clair, which makes them the perfect addition to his most ambitious package to date.
“Play Jana” is a majestic number that wriggles with a snake charming allure. Tribal chants and drum circle vocalizations are implemented to a hypnotizing effect. The rest of the track’s body-moving splendor lies in an exotic mélange of tumbling hand percussion, intermittent string stabs and quirky embellishments filling out the mix.
Migrating its way down into the southern hemisphere, “El Pasado” sees him sprinkling in some savory Latin flavor into the rotation. Saucy Spanish vocals are peppered throughout its hip-shaking rhythm, tickling the sweet spot with a buoyant underbelly of shuffling drum patterns, crisp claps, glistening arpeggiations, and brilliant laser fills.
The final excerpt from the effort arrives in the form of a volatile collab with San Diego’s Cheyenne Giles, who has garnered support from top-shelf tastemakers from the likes of the Chainsmokers, Martin Garrix, Loud Luxury, and Tiësto, to name a few.
Seeing eye-to-eye on the creative tip, they find an ionic compatibility in “Chemistry.” It’s intoxicating all the way down to a molecular level, resulting in a breathtaking titration of sublime vocal loops, dewy melody lines, clattering drum sequences, and vitreous pads that meld together to set off a chain reaction of pure ecstasy.
“I had a lot of fun making this project and this is the first time I’m releasing a 6-track EP,” says Bleu Clair. “I love every single one of them, especially the collaboration ones. I think this EP really encapsulates what the Bleu Clair project will sound like in the future.”
Binding itself around a spine of far-flung cultural influences that truly transcends borders, Bleu Clair’s new EP is at once dynamic yet cohesive, effectively leaving the next unwritten chapters at the mercy of his chameleon-like will. The ‘Prelude’ EP is available everywhere via Insomniac Records.
