A Guide to Dean Blunt, the Trickster God of the UK Music Scene
A Guide to Dean Blunt, the Trickster God of the UK Music Scene
Journeying through the discography of England's best artist working today
To celebrate the release of Dhanveer Singh Brar’s Beefy's Tune (Dean Blunt Edit), I’m re-publishing my guide to Dean Blunt initially written for r/indieheads a few months ago. I’ve made a few edits to fit this newsletter better.
If you are familiar enough with my work across the internet, you know I’m a huge Dean Blunt fan. I’ve written and talked extensively about his work in the past, but wanted to put together a more definitive guide to, in my opinion, one of the best artists working in music today and growing influence in and outside the UK music scene. Some consider him a genius, others an enfant terrible, others a prankster, and well to the rest, all of the above. From his start working with Inga Copeland/Lolina as Hype Williams, to his prolific solo career, to collaborations with artists ranging from Vegyn, A$AP Rocky, Yung Lean, Arca and Panda Bear, he’s an artist whose hands you can find in many musical mixing pots throughout the 2010s. This is my attempt to gather as many of these ceramics as possible for new or lapsed fans.
But let’s establish some guidelines to this guide. First off, I’m going to just give y’all the essentials first and foremost. These are the definitive works of Blunt in my humble opinion and where you’re best to start. After that, we’ll look into his most recent works and then after that, we’ll look at some projects that tie into the essential works, important moments in Dean’s career, or just personal faves of mine. Let’s get to the starting line though.
THE ESSENTIALS
Black Metal, 2014 (Rough Trade)
While not my personal favorite Dean Blunt album, Black Metal is him at the peak of his powers as a songwriter and conceptual artist. For his first (and so far, only) release on the legendary Rough Trade label, Blunt pulled out all the stops here. One half of this album is Blunt’s distorted view on the predominately white British indie rock/Britpop scene, the other half his takes on genres that are either predominantly black or have deep origins in the black music scene like dub, grime, and house music. Confessional yet vague, catchy yet hard to grasp, and other contrasts of this nature make up Black Metal, an album that was made to heavily criticize the re-appropriation of white art by black artists like Kanye West (remember when the most controversial thing Kanye did for a year was wearing a confederate flag in an attempt to re-appropriate it?). Despite me spending years with this album, I still have trouble wrapping my head around this at times and honestly, I prefer it that way. When it comes to entering the sonic world of Dean Blunt, this prepares you for everything before and after this LP’s release.
The Redeemer, 2013 (Hippos in Tanks)
I wrote about this for the Indieheads Podcast’s Best Albums of the Decade list, so I’m just gonna copy what I said on there to here, as this is not only my favorite Dean Blunt project, this is my favorite album of all time. I discovered this album in 2015 in the midst of my first real, tangible breakup. That entire year for me was really a haze, as when there’s no set timeline for how to get over a breakup, the perception of time slips away. You continue to go back and forth between memories and specific thought patterns, thinking about the times you thought were better with a broken pair of rose-tinted glasses. There’s a lot of ways you can view The Redeemer. Maybe it’s a tribute to the great pop breakup albums of the 70s and 80s considering its samples of Kate Bush and Fleetwood Mac. It could possibly be a piss take to the emerging influence of 808s & Heartbreaks amongst hip-hop and R&B. Possibly, it’s a look at an abusive relationship through the perspective of the intoxicator. Hell, it might be all of the above and more. Simply, there’s an alluring mystery to The Redeemer that makes it so malleable. No matter where I’ve been in my life in the four years since I’ve heard this album, there’s always something that speaks deeply to me where no other album can. While you might walk away confused from this album, you’ll be thinking about it for quite some time once you finish your first listen.
Also, I want to share a quote from Dean Blunt to an unknown publication about the album that I’ll let speak for itself:
The Redeemer is under the umbrella of The Narcissist. Redemption is the last fucking tool to hold his narcissism intact. Seeking redemption is always just the face of, like, honesty, using the face of honesty to kind of keep the narcissist in hold. Redemption is just a tool used by a narcissist.
“BBF” Hosted by DJ Escrow, 2016 (Hyperdub)
For some Dean Blunt faithfuls, they might question my inclusion of this in the essentials section. It is far from my favorite Dean Blunt project, but I think if you have to paint a picture of Dean Blunt as an artist with three albums like I’m doing here, this has to be one of them. Released under the Babyfather name (a rap “group” made up of Blunt, DJ Escrow, and Gassman), “BBF” was the opus of Blunt’s work post-Black Metal as he toyed further with grime and rap music, as it’s likely this album that put him in the same circles as A$AP Rocky who he worked heavily with years later on his album Testing, a commercial and critical misfire to most. However, “BBF” is not an album to be enjoyed as “good music.” This is an interesting artistic piece of what it’s like to live as a black man in Britain and living under the standards of black masculinity in general. While it’s got some serious bangers like “Meditation” and “Motivation”, I understand anyone who taps out from the sample of Craig David saying “This makes me proud to be British” for five minutes straight in “Stealth Intro” or the mix of harsh noise and DJ ad-libs and shoutouts throughout “PROLIFIC DAEMONS.” However, this remains Blunt’s most interesting conceptual work as an artist and if you’re willing to hear the conventions of music broken repeatedly, this is an important, essential work of British music post-Brexit (Also, Beefy’s Tune (Dean Blunt Edit) mostly revolves around this album!).
RECENT WORKS
Roaches 2012-2019, 2020 (World Music)
I debated throwing this in the essentials section, as this compilation really does encapsulate Blunt’s musical output this decade quite well. However, it’s still maybe too soon to call (And also after the original publication of this guide, he put out a 50+ track version of it which I cannot fully recommend to new fans). Alas, this should probably be 3rd or 4th on your list of Dean Blunt projects to listen to as a new fan. With a variety of highlights from his master use of samples in “FELONY” and “LIT freestyle”, songs that tie significantly into his best works like “ACTS OF FAITH” or “TRIDENT 2”, or mini-projects within this project like the “NITRO GIRLS” section or the “BENIDORM” section, this is an expertly sequenced selection of loosies, random singles, and unreleased works of an artist constantly evolving to a music media that lashed out when they couldn’t place him.
ZUSHI, 2019 (World Music)
Released exclusively last year to NTS during his residency at the legendary UK radio station based in Blunt’s hometown of Hackney, ZUSHI is the first Dean Blunt project in some time to not feature any of his signature baritone throughout, instead his voice being replaced by occasionally eerie samples, past collaborators like Joanne Robertson, A$AP Rocky, and Yung Lean (under his alias jonatan leandoer96) and new voices like Panda Bear (who contributes some of his best solo work in years, seriously) and Sauce Walka. While Blunt’s vocals are sorely missed throughout this thing, ZUSHI still remains one of my personal favorites by Dean for his masterful production work and sequencing that makes a glorified DJ mix into a fantastic and cohesive project despite the varying vocalists throughout and sonic shifts.
This is an aside, but, Dean Blunt really should have produced that last Panda Bear album, he knows how to use Panda’s raw vocals so much more than Rusty Santos.
Soul On Fire, 2018 (World Music)
In terms of a proper Dean Blunt full length though, Soul On Fire is his latest that seems to be one of many doors Blunt has closed following up Black Metal, returning to the indie rock sound that inspired the first half of that album. With a reverb-heavy electric guitar in hand, Blunt presents some of his most stripped down work yet, with bite-sized confessionals that see him at his most vulnerable since The Redeemer. However, we also get some fantastic sample-heavy songs Blunt has become known for, flipping a Genesis track on “A_X” for a Gang of Four cover that’s more R&B than post-punk, and Metallica cut on “Beefa” for another genre re-appropriation far from the original songs’ intent. Whether this project was intended to be a chapter ending for his early decade output, or a teaser for his highly anticipated Black Metal II, it’s been a go-to for me when I want a Dean Blunt project with every single bit of fat cut.
SUPPLEMENTAL WORKS
The Narcissist II, 2012 (Hippos in Tanks)
Once again, some Dean Blunt faithfuls may question this not being an essential pick, but I wanted to make sure that part of this guide had some variety even though I think the run of this album to Black Metal is one of the most impressive runs any artist has had this century. The solo debut of Blunt following the “end” of Hype Williams in 2012, The Narcissist II is more an expansion on Black Is Beautiful (the collab album he released this same year with Inga Copeland, forgoing their Hype Williams moniker for that release) than a setup for the rest of his solo work, as sonically it has much more in common with the hazy soundscapes he made with Inga Copeland throughout the late 2000s/early 2010s. Lyrically though, it serves as a prequel of sorts to the themes he’d dive headfirst into on The Redeemer, with “The Narcissist” possibly being his best song ever. But consider this album a prequel like Half Life: Alyx is a prequel, an album that on the surface doesn't seem essential to understanding the later works of Blunt, but a significant body of work (especially in the world of hypnagogic pop) that slowly reveals itself over time, beginning of one of the greatest peaks of a musician this decade.
Stone Island, 2013 (Self-Released)
Now, if you’re really loving the world of The Redeemer and you want more, Stone Island is where you want to go once you’ve fully enveloped yourself in that album. Recorded in a Russian hotel room and initially released on an internet forum there, Stone Island doesn’t necessarily pick up where The Redeemer left off, but serves as a companion piece that adds some more details to the themes of that album even if it’s necessity is questionable. However, considering how much I love The Redeemer, I’m not going to complain about more music in that style, especially considering the pedigree of songs like “Six” and “Heat” featuring Joanne Robertson, the former featuring a fucking amazing Stravinsky sample that sounds so menacing under Blunt’s dulcet tone and threatening lyrics, and the latter being one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard, without a doubt.
Skin Fade, 2014 (Self-Released)
With Stone Island being a companion piece to The Redeemer, Skin Fade is more of a stepping stone between The Redeemer and Black Metal, as the string-heavy works of the former are all over this mixtape, with the drum-machine and beat work of Black Metal creeping in throughout many of these songs that seems like Blunt testing the waters for something much more ambitious. Once again, we get an amazing Joanne Robertson appearance on this tape in “Mr DJ”, one of their best collaborations to date in a series of amazing works, along with one of the best song names ever in “Not A Drop Left Of Serotonin In New York City And Its All My Fault,” a short but important epilogue of The Redeemer that perfectly sets up the home run that is Black Metal.
Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite, And Start Gettin' Reel (with Hype Williams), 2010 (De Stilj)
Despite being a huge fan of Blunt’s work, Hype Williams has always confounded me quite a bit. However, a guide to Dean Blunt isn’t complete if I don’t mention at least one project from the project that made him. As mentioned previously, Hype Williams was the duo he formed with Inga Copeland in the late 2000s that became one of the last wave riders of the music blog wars in the 2000s. Known for their insanely lo-fi videos (even by YouTube standards in 2010) and the somehow more lo-fi electronic music accompanying these strange bits of early internet video, Blunt and Copeland quickly caught the attention of various British and experimental music blogs for their confounding music and influential publicity stunts. If you’re wondering why I called Blunt a trickster god in the title of this post, this is where it all begins. While I sadly don’t have time to dive into all their stunts and releases, I still think this album is the best work they did together at a short and sweet 24 minutes that takes you through an intriguing journey throughout, with its biggest highlight being the Copeland-led “The Throning”, a cover of Sade’s “The Sweetest Taboo.”
Hotep (as/with Blue Iverson), 2017 (World Music)
While I debated putting WAHALLA in this spot as that is the album I’m most familiar with compared to this one, I think for this last slot it would be good to mention another album far from the sonic direction of either The Redeemer or Black Metal and that isn’t a Babyfather album, a project that is much more conceptually interesting than musically pleasing at times. Released under the name Blue Iverson, Blunt allegedly recorded this album at the Stones Throw studio with musicians in the LA area, and what follows is a breezy set of jazzy, R&B and soft rock-inspired songs that pay tribute to the album cover’s star, Lauryn Hill. While I personally don’t think this is too essential of a work from Blunt, it’s one of his more unique and accessible projects that is one of a few albums Pitchfork actually really likes from him, even if I don’t totally get it.
And there we have it, a guide to Dean Blunt that’ll hopefully prepare you for the long-awaited sequel to Black Metal later this year (as long as COVID-19 didn’t delay it) via Rough Trade. If you want a much more bite-sized version of this guide, I’ve compiled a playlist of the best songs from each of these projects, along with some others I didn’t get a chance to mention, clocking in around an hour. Nevertheless though, Blunt is seriously one of my favorite artists of all-time with a body of work that can be terrifying to dive into, and whose critical reception depending on the place you read can place him wildly different pedestals. For me though, I think he simultaneously serves as a wonderful spiritual successor to art pop artists like Bjork and Kate Bush, avant-garde artists like Philip Glass and Scott Walker, and hip-hop and R&B pioneers like Sade and Lauryn Hill, with his own ears that point to the past of UK music as much as they point towards its future. The Dean Blunt mindset is very similar to the mindset of many UK artists that have come up in his wake, especially bands like black midi, Sorry, and Black Country, New Road, who all have similar outlooks in the abandonment of genre, embrace of the internet, strong collaborative mindsets, and most importantly, taking the piss out of the entire industry surrounding them.
great guide