Washed Out

Long adored and critically lauded in the blog world, Ernest Greene (aka Washed Out) first came to prominence in the summer of 2009 after unassumingly posting a handful of bedroom-recorded tracks to his Myspace page from his family home in the seclusion of the tiny rural city of Perry, Georgia.

Despite such modest intentions however, those first songs (many of which would appear on the acclaimed Life of Leisure EP of later that year) were about as complete an opening statement from an artist as imaginable.

A remarkably impressive feat of song writing and production, the songs of Life of Leisure saw him as a designated leader of a newly emerging DIY movement.

The rest of 2009 and early 2010 saw Greene taking Life of Leisure on tour in North America and Europe; working through various incarnations with increasing success. Along the way Washed Out inspired a legion of devoted supporters, followers and imitators.

Before, Greene pieced his gauzy, looping pop songs from obscure samples and segments of re-constructed found-sound plucked from an intimidatingly vast record collection. The widescreen, ecstatic melodies of Within and Without (released this summer) are all of his own composition and Washed Out is no longer just a bedroom production project but a real band (now playing live as a five-piece that includes Greene’s wife Blair).

The result of this more considered approach to composition and enhanced production is a record that retains the jubilant, sun-kissed energy that lit up the imaginations of so many the first time around but also refines it–conjuring a far more nuanced and balanced sense of emotion from a more organic pallet of sounds and textures.