Blue Hawaii is a 1961 musical romantic comedy starring Elvis Presley as a young man who doesn’t want to work in his family’s pineapple business. Blue Hawaii is also an electronic duo from Montreal — currently split between there and Berlin — making pop music for the dancefloor. We know which one we prefer. Drawing from classic house, trance and trip-hop, long term collaborators Ra and Agor just released their fourth record, Open Reduction Internal Fixation, a nostalgic genre-shifter that feels distinctly more Balearic than either of their respective cities would suggest.
“Blue Hawaii, as a project, straddles the boundary between live and DJ,” they told us over email this morning, “but the focus is on having fun. Everything else comes after.” Good values in our book. About to land on our shores for their UK tour — kicking off 12 December at London’s Corsica Studios and passing through Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds and Bristol — catching Blue Hawaii live is highly recommended. “Improvising vocal parts and genre flipping happen regularly at our shows and on our records,” they continued. “The gems that arise as well as the failures, well, it’s all part of this sport. Our i-D mix reflects this practise, snipping between different genres and times, while keeping a focus on fun upbeat spontaneous good times. Hope you enjoy!”