Bleep

After parting from his Italians Do It Better venture with Johnny Jewel, Mike Simonetti breaks fresh grounds: The Past We Leave Behind is his first album as Pale Blue, his new project with Silver Hands lead singer Elizabeth Wight. It also marks the start of another collaboration — that of Simonetti and Captured Tracks’ founder Mike Sniper — as it arrives via their new joint label 2MR (Two Mikes Records). With a clear dramaturgy, the album makes the most of its format, embedding Wight’s pristine vocals in layers of ambient drones and bouncing dance beats of precise drum machines. Although thematically dealing with the struggles Simonetti encountered during his split from Italians Do It Better and the effects of Hurricane Sandy, it’s a sonic dream journey.