Ross Blake

Those of you who have been reading BBBD for longer than just the past few weeks (whoops, I wrote some left-field stuff!) may remember Buttonhead, the London, U.K. experimental and spastic rock band we loved to death and accidentally omitted from one of our many year-end best artists lists.

Anyway. This post is not about Buttonhead, but rather Ross Blake, one of the members of the above mentioned quintet. While Blake is still an active and integral part of Buttonhead, he's gone off to pursue more fine art endeavors, namely composing the soundtrack to a new play entitled The Dybbuk. Judging by the glowing reviews and enchanting musical work, it's both very good and quite haunting as well.

We don't mean to draw too many comparisons, but would like to note here that when we first wrote about Buttonhead, we mentioned the group's likeness to Deerhoof in some regards. Isn't it quite the coincidence, then, that both bands have interacted with theatrical productions at some point? Hmmm ... we're feeling a transatlantic collaboration coming on ...

Back to the soundtrack. The Dybbuk O.S.T. is reminiscent of a Danny Elfman score with the quirkiness and off-kilter penchant for spasm and wall-of-sound noise barrages that only a modern London pop musician could churn out. The technical abilities of Blake must be pretty stellar, anyway, considering the complexity, depth, and dense construction of the fifteen-song score. It's incredibly expressive and enigmatic, which is all at once alluring personally -- this is some great standalone music! -- and a concrete reason to check out the actual production. But alas, BBBD resides in L.A. and can only hope to catch this on tour (not going to happen). For now, we'll just anticipate an Owen Palette/Deerhoof/Ross Blake supergroup.

Check out a few MP3s below or just download the entire album!

Ross Blake - Batey

Ross Blake - Dybbuk Finale

Ross Blake - Mountain Escape

Ross Blake - Night Song