On The Verge

Blues Control

Coopersburg, Pa.
Impressionistic Psychedelic Postcards
www.facebook.com/bluescontrol

“The record is an impressionistic view of our life in the valley,” explains Lea Cho, one-half of the apartment-psych duo Blues Control. “Spending time outdoors, jamming in our practice space with the windows open, going to Iron Pigs stadium, easing into peaceful evenings at home.” Since she and longtime partner Russ Waterhouse relocated to the quietude of Coopersburg, from the non-stop urban stimuli of their original digs in Queens, N.Y., the pair has all but abandoned the noisy experimentalism of their early sonic hurricanes for Holy Mountain and Siltbreeze labels. For their excellent Drag City debut, Valley Tangents, they favor a crisper, cleaner sound that accentuates Cho’s beautiful Glenn Gould-inspired piano playing—honed from her childhood classical training that landed her on the Carnegie Hall stage at age 11—than any other Blues Control LP to date. It’s a shift in mood that the couple agree has much to do with the juxtaposition of their environs. “It’s cheaper, it’s healthier and it’s easier to stay focused on music-making,” says Waterhouse of Coopersburg. “We’re generally more at ease here and that feeling is reflected in our new songs.”