Articles
Spotlight 10
Ten Favourite Labels 2013

Albums
52 Commercial Road
Chantal Acda
David Åhlén
Daniel Bortz
Peter Broderick
Brass Mask
bvdub / bvdub & loscil
Colorlist
Dale Cooper Quartet
Cuushe
Jack Dangers
Deco
Deetron
DFRNT
Egbert
The Foreign Exchange
Nils Frahm
Bjarni Gunnarsson
Robert Haigh
Marihiko Hara & Polar M
John Heckle
Arve Henriksen
Joy Wellboy
Kaboom Karavan
KILN
Land of Kush
Jessy Lanza
Last Days
L.B. Dub Corp
Lights Dim with Gallery Six
Livity Sound
Moskitoo
MUfi.re
Oddisee
Om Unit
Ø [Phase]
Raudive
Matana Roberts
Sakamoto + Deupree
Secret Pyramid
Quentin Sirjacq
Sleeper
Sonicbrat
Special Request
Stratosphere & Serries
Thisquietarmy
Ricardo Tobar
Tom Trago

Compilations / Mixes
Foundland
In The Dark
Mathias Kaden

EPs / Cassettes / Singles
Anduin
Anile / Lm1 & Kharm
Cursa
Gerwin & Nuage ft. 2Shy
Hessien
Jon McMillion
Miaou

CD-Vinyl-DVD
Seaman and Tattered Sail

Jessy Lanza: Pull My Hair Back
Hyperdub

On her excellent debut album Pull My Hair Back, Jessy Lanza humanizes her synthetic backdrops with an alluringly soulful vocal delivery. Throughout the nine-song set, Lanza and co-writer and co-producer Jeremy Greenspan (of Junior Boys fame) strike a thoroughly satisfying balance between the naturalism of her singing and the mechanoid futurism of the instrumental backing.

Every song has something to recommend it, even if the element towering irresistibly over all others is her voice, which appeals equally whether delivered in falsetto or normal register modes. And if Lanza plays the seductress on her debut album, don't hold it against her: equipped with a voice so naturally beguiling, it would be hard for her to do otherwise. Instrumentally, the tracks are unapologetically synthetic in design, with synthesizers and and drum machines accounting for pretty much everything and nary an acoustic sound in sight.

Pull My Hair Back floats in on a gentle electro-synth chug with “Giddy,” all crystalline keyboard flutterings and delayed vocal effects, before “5785021” brings her music's neo-soulful essence into clear focus. It's easy indeed to be seduced by her cooing falsetto as she recites her phone number and trills “Call me,” just as it is during the unshackled vocal delivery she brings to the later title track. As alluring is “Kathy Lee,” a slinky slow jam that follows an intro of day-glo synth chords and fingersnaps with an ethereal vocal delivery that's as hushed as it is acrobatic. Strangely reminiscent of Daft Punk's “Get Lucky” (perhaps due in part to its ubiquity), “Keep Moving” alternates between shimmering episodes of raw disco-funk and effervescent house, while “Fuck Diamond” nudges the album onto the dance floor with a bumping house groove and off-beat claps. Nowhere does Lanza better counter the music's synthetic chill with humanity than during the transporting soul-ballad closer “Strange Emotion.”

November 2013