When you're a great DJ, becoming a producer is quite natural; the more the game remains the same begets opportunities to change it. And while I can't say such was the case with DC-area DJ/producer Thomas Blondet, it certainly seems a bit like the truth. Starting in the early 90's as a genre hopping DJ, infusing beat-oriented genres like deep house, speed garage, drum’n’bass, hip-hop, reggae, and dub with Arab, Latin, Indian, Balkan, Kurdish and Caribbean influences; blondet has emerged as style-making producer of some of the dopest electro-ganic sounds around.
He maintains a DJ residency at Eighteenth Street Lounge, the same spot that Thievery Corporation maintains as a testing ground for their own musical forays, even as he mans the helm of his own Rhythm & Culture label. Creatively, he's at home producing remixes for artists like Balkan Beat Box, Nickodemus, Sola Rosa, Mr. Confuse and Fort Knox Five as well as his own modest collection of originals. On his latest, the Un Amor EP that came out yesterday (Nov 5th), we hear a production built around SiSe singer Carol C.'s charming vocals and re-worked by a few others on a very DJ-oriented release that stages the same song several different ways in a way that would make it a fit for a few types of DJ set. Though the remixes are solid, the real nugget is the cut they come from; that's why I played it at the 10. A thin seed for rainy days and pale fall flowers doomed to unlikely bloom in warm winter.
