BLUETILE LOUNGE

Bluetile Lounge formed in Perth, Western Australia in 1991. One of the band's early songs, "Concrete/Tunnels", featured on a compilation tape released by Guy Blackman's Chapter Music label. Blackman went on to become Bluetile Lounge's first producer. In 1995, Bluetile Lounge recorded their debut album, 'Lowercase', in a Masonic Hall in the port city of Fremantle, south of Perth. The band chose the recording location for its acoustics, giving the album a "big, roomy natural sound." Alan Sparhawk, frontman of American band Low, encouraged Jason Reynolds of Australia's Summershine Records to release the album. Sub Pop and Shock Records distributed 'Lowercase' in the United States and Australia respectively. Andy Hazel of Double J said the album's songs "don’t so much begin and end as appear, glitter, linger and recede. At times brittle and delicately constructed, there is a muscularity and sense of purpose that lulls and stuns."

At the behest of Sonic Youth, Bluetile Lounge played the Perth leg of the 1996 Summersault music festival. In 1998, the band returned to the Fremantle Masonic Hall to record their sophomore LP, 'Half-Cut'. Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley agreed to release the album on his label Smells Like Records. Reviewing the album for CMJ New Music Monthly, Lois Maffeo praised the band's compositions and "crystalline" sound, as well as their ability to maintain a "clear mental union" while playing at a "glacial" pace.

Bluetile Lounge disbanded in 1998, and occasionally reformed to play live for Perth community radio station RTRFM. Today their albums are considered surviving remnants of a 1990s Perth indie scene that has all but faded into obscurity. In 2017, in ranking 'Lowercase' as the fifth best slowcore album, Anthony Carew of ThoughtCo called it "a five-song, 45-minute study in isolationism, in a persistent loneliness leaving one feeling utterly unmoored; unsurprising sentiments for a band from Perth, the world's most isolated major city."

In April 2021, Bluetile Lounge released a new demo track titled "Last Men" on Bandcamp. The band also announced plans on their Facebook page for a vinyl reissue of 'Lowercase', along with the release of additional new recordings. Adelaide-based Hobbledehoy Record Co. oversaw the addition of the Bluetile Lounge discography to streaming services in July 2021, and announced the vinyl reissues of both 'Lowercase' and 'Half Cut' in June 2022, with new artwork by band member Howard Healy. On June 17 of 2022, the band announced via their Facebook page that a new single, titled Easterly, was available via streaming services.

Members

Daniel Erickson (vocals, guitar, piano), Howard Healy (vocals, guitar, bass), Gabriell Cotton (guitar, piano, vocals), Alexander Stevens (drums, percussion)

References

http://perthmusicblog.com/?p=195