Guy Blakeslee of The Entrance Band Ophelia Slowly

Guy Blakeslee (The Entrance Band) delivers his first solo album in ten years. Produced by Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah, Yeah Yeahs), Ophelia Slowly takes a step back from the dense rock sound his LA-based neopsychedelic trio is known for, delving instead into a sparse, spooky dreamscape where drum loops, synthesizers, and the occasional acoustic guitar frame his always haunting vocal delivery. Recorded in New York in the fall of 2013, the album focuses on Blakeslee’s recent descent; wrestling with demons and angels alike, he has come through it victoriously, expressing the hopeful message of a modern day spiritual. Recording under his own name for the first time, Blakeslee seems to hint that the intention for this project is intimate and vulnerable, and as anyone who has caught his recent solo dates opening for Spiritualized or Cat Power will attest, he delivers on that promise. Blakeslee has always been a re-interpreter of early American Delta blues. On Ophelia Slowly, his love for the genre is felt not only in his upside down, lefthanded electric guitar playing, but also in his soulful howl: needing no accompaniment at all, it’s as comfortable in an Echo Park nightclub as it would a 1920’s Mississippi street corner. Allowing his vocals to appear front and center, as opposed to his impressive guitar playing, seems to be a decision inspired, in part, by Chris Coady, who not only recorded Blakeslee’s last solo album, Wandering Stranger (Fat Possum), but was the first person to record him at all. The two grew-up together in Baltimore and seem to share an unspoken communication, having collaborated on music together since high school.