Long Fling

After ten years in a relationship together, and countless tours apart, Pip Blom and Willem Smit (frontman of Personal Trainer) have finally made their first and only record as a duo.

Much like their relationship, the album is the product of patience, persistence, and trust. Long Fling is both a love story and a collaboration, written and recorded in the background of their entire relationship.

In the album’s opener ‘Pig’ has a consistence pace, that verges into building harmony and both voices are showcased as being at their strongest in this track in my opinion. ‘Mousehouse’ offers a quite funky, upbeat track that feels like a jam session but with an air of polish.

The album’s standout track for me is ‘Cool Bottle Water Park’, kicked off with a relentless guitar riff bursting out with velocity. The singing brings a sense of feel extremely cool and sleek, as the duo argue over a beat. It offers something incredibly different to what we’ve seen from people in the industry so far and suggests as a duo they have something special and unique.

‘Tossed’ offers a more stripped back approach with this melancholy beat, with lyrics around the mundane task we all experience in life like broken bathroom doors and socks. Towards the end of ‘Waste Line’ the sound demonstrates the clear influence from 90’s rock within their art.

In the early days, writing together wasn’t easy; sessions often ended in arguments, with each unwilling to let go of their own creative habits. Over the years, they learned each other’s language, grew more comfortable in the studio, and found a process that worked.

The result is Long Fling: warm, minimal, and lightly tangled in krautrock rhythms, motorik grooves, wiry guitars, and drum machine loops forming the backbone for wry, melodic, and personal quirky songs.

This record feels like a natural extension of their worlds, but with a looseness, confidence, and freshness that’s entirely its own.