AU60: Washed Out breaking act piece

WASHED OUT

MEMBER: Ernest Greene
FORMATION: Georgia, USA, 2009.
FOR FANS OF: Erasure, Walter Jones, Junior Boys.
CHECK OUT: Life Of Leisure EP, out now on Mexican Summer.
WEBLINK: www.myspace.com/thebabeinthewoods

Apt artist names are always strangely satisfying, as if the perfect marriage of words and music elevates the whole package. And when a fitting visual image is thrown in too, well, it’s an open goal for the artist in question. So it is with Washed Out, the inspired alias of a young gent by the marvellous given name of Ernest Greene. Greene’s latest EP, the bewitching Life Of Leisure, is a hazy, soft-focus confection that draws on Eighties synth-pop and slo-mo disco, and key to his success is the wholly original sound he’s managed to come up with, drenching his solidly lo-fi productions with some soporific synths and dreamy, half-heard vocals. You could try dancing to it, but what we really want to do is listen on headphones while walking around San Francisco on a summer’s evening, the sun still an hour from setting and the air warm and soft. It seems like it would fit, somehow.