The key track gives the album its title. “Where the Fades Meet” opens with swelling strings, which are swiftly underpinned by groovy, shuffling, percussion. The lyrics are carried by a chorale singing of a “fading signal”, “stillness” and “shadows.” It seems to about what lies in the gaps between the perceivable. The melody has a vaguely eastern Mediterranean lilt. Overall, it leans into evoking an exotica-inclined Rotary Connection – the late-Sixties/early Seventies outfit that was a core influence on acid jazz.
“Where the Fades Meet” is the sixth track on the seventh album – there has also been a compilation – that Andy Dragazis has recorded under his Blue States guise. The first, Nothing Changes Under the Sun, was issued in 2000. The new album’s predecessor, World Contact Day, came out in March 2022. In general, the early Blue States records posited a form of chillout electronica. After this, there was a shift into moody indie rock. World Contact Day had the chillout factor but was essentially a series of swirling, David Holmes-ish, soundtrack-esque mood pieces. To a degree, Where the Fades Meet follows on with its use of strings and drifting melodies. But it is more about songs as such than what was in record racks four years ago.
It feels as if Dragazis may have taken a step back to reassess how he presents his music. The six-piece chorale, led by vocalist Stacey Dowdeswell – the vocal contributions were typically record in one take – is central. Alongside the acid jazz / trip hop-adjacent rhythms, this is what the ear is drawn to. Dowdeswell is jazz- and soul-inclined, and her own recordings have a Minnie Ripperton edge, meaning the initial response to Where the Fades Meet as being in the Ripperton-voiced Rotary Connection ballpark isn’t so far off.
Indeed, closing track “Idle Hours” is very much in the Marlena Shaw bag. She, like The Rotary Connection, was arranged and produced by the for-real legendary Charles Stepney, who also composed for them. All of which suggests that the avowedly organic Where the Fades Meet is Andy Dragazis’ most bold musical statement so far.
