July 31 street date. ‘All The Time’, Jessy Lanza's first album since 2016's ‘Oh No’, is the most pure set of pop songs that she and creative partner Jeremy Greenspan have recorded, reflective and finessed over time and distance. Innovative juxtapositions sound natural, like rigid 808s rubbing against delicate chords in ‘Anyone Around’, subtle footwork flutter giving a nervous energy to ‘Face’, unusual underwater rushes underpinning ‘Baby Love’. The songs also sound more "live" than ever before. Jessy's voice is treated, re-pitched and edited on songs like ‘Ice Creamy’ and gestural sounds seem to respond to her lyrics in songs such as ‘Like Fire’, which reward the listener on repeated plays. More than previous albums, the lyrics on ‘All The Time’ became an important focus for Jessy too, channelling the negativity of anger and frustration arising from some significant changes in her personal situation into the text. These lyrics sometimes process raw feelings, which aren't obvious to begin with, but are soon felt, standing in stark contrast to the cushioned settings of the music. ‘All The Time’ has ended as a triumph and an abstracted diary of a sometimes difficult, but enduring friendship and creative relationship, and it's their best work yet.
July 31 street date. ‘All The Time’, Jessy Lanza's first album since 2016's ‘Oh No’, is the most pure set of pop songs that she and creative partner Jeremy Greenspan have recorded, reflective and finessed over time and distance. Innovative juxtapositions sound natural, like rigid 808s rubbing against delicate chords in ‘Anyone Around’, subtle footwork flutter giving a nervous energy to ‘Face’, unusual underwater rushes underpinning ‘Baby Love’. The songs also sound more "live" than ever before. Jessy's voice is treated, re-pitched and edited on songs like ‘Ice Creamy’ and gestural sounds seem to respond to her lyrics in songs such as ‘Like Fire’, which reward the listener on repeated plays. More than previous albums, the lyrics on ‘All The Time’ became an important focus for Jessy too, channelling the negativity of anger and frustration arising from some significant changes in her personal situation into the text. These lyrics sometimes process raw feelings, which aren't obvious to begin with, but are soon felt, standing in stark contrast to the cushioned settings of the music. ‘All The Time’ has ended as a triumph and an abstracted diary of a sometimes difficult, but enduring friendship and creative relationship, and it's their best work yet.
July 28 street date. On ‘Love Hallucination’, Jessy Lanza is in control as a songwriter and producer, flexing her skills in the studio and rebuilding her sound, taking chances with production and energy in all directions, from club-ready, to downbeat and sultry, with the theme of trusting yourself in the moment and using intuition as a compass driving the record forward. ‘Love Hallucination’ is the sound of an artist in bloom, an album of big emotions and big songs, with direct, personal lyrics, such as the upbeat but panicked opener 'Don't Leave Me Now' and the 2-step drama of 'Midnight Ontario', or 'Limbo', an ear worm disco stomper about produced with Marco 'Tensnake' Niermeski. Also featured as co-producers are David Kennedy (Pearson Sound), adding slick arrangements for the club, long-time collaborator Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys), and Paul White. ‘Love Hallucination’ is a bold and immediate record from Jessy Lanza, her most clear, authentic and best to date.
July 28 street date. On ‘Love Hallucination’, Jessy Lanza is in control as a songwriter and producer, flexing her skills in the studio and rebuilding her sound, taking chances with production and energy in all directions, from club-ready, to downbeat and sultry, with the theme of trusting yourself in the moment and using intuition as a compass driving the record forward. ‘Love Hallucination’ is the sound of an artist in bloom, an album of big emotions and big songs, with direct, personal lyrics, such as the upbeat but panicked opener 'Don't Leave Me Now' and the 2-step drama of 'Midnight Ontario', or 'Limbo', an ear worm disco stomper about produced with Marco 'Tensnake' Niermeski. Also featured as co-producers are David Kennedy (Pearson Sound), adding slick arrangements for the club, long-time collaborator Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys), and Paul White. ‘Love Hallucination’ is a bold and immediate record from Jessy Lanza, her most clear, authentic and best to date.
September 10 street date. Jessy Lanza’s debut album 'Pull My Hair Back', co-written and co-produced with Jeremy Greenspan from Junior Boys, is a 2013 flagship for what electronic pop could sound like, stripped of bloated, behaviourist impulses that treat listeners like lab rats. It's graceful and erotic without the gratuitous close ups, icey and sensual, sweet without rotting your teeth, emotional but with enough blue glow to pull your heart strings. Jessy's voice flutters through the synths seductively, insistent without the over-singing and grating choruses that plague so much contemporary pop. Jessy Lanza has a background as a singer and skilled piano scholar, and the duo share a mutual love of collecting the old hardware synths and drum machines that grace this collection of songs. Transecting R&B, house, disco and ‘80s studio rock, the production is immaculate, reminiscent of early Junior Boys, treading that fine line between cold futurism and the R&B that Jessy and Jeremy are infatuated with. Jessy's vocals sound comfortably at home over the fluttering-pitched synths of 'Fuck Diamond' and the album's pop pinnacle, 'Keep Moving', where the tempo rises into classic disco, house and techno. 'Against The Wall' marches in with crunchy, metallic drums and a bumbling baseline, as the singer’s sweet, delayed voice rides a line through powerfully contrasting gurgling, strobing synths. 'Pull My Hair Back' is bittersweet, blue and soulful, shot through with driving, fizzling arpeggios. It balances cold, machine tooled precision with Jessy's beguiling, elevated vocals and her more intuitive, impressionistic keyboard playing. Lean and deadly, it leaves you craving more.
September 10 street date. Jessy Lanza’s debut album 'Pull My Hair Back', co-written and co-produced with Jeremy Greenspan from Junior Boys, is a 2013 flagship for what electronic pop could sound like, stripped of bloated, behaviourist impulses that treat listeners like lab rats. It's graceful and erotic without the gratuitous close ups, icey and sensual, sweet without rotting your teeth, emotional but with enough blue glow to pull your heart strings. Jessy's voice flutters through the synths seductively, insistent without the over-singing and grating choruses that plague so much contemporary pop. Jessy Lanza has a background as a singer and skilled piano scholar, and the duo share a mutual love of collecting the old hardware synths and drum machines that grace this collection of songs. Transecting R&B, house, disco and ‘80s studio rock, the production is immaculate, reminiscent of early Junior Boys, treading that fine line between cold futurism and the R&B that Jessy and Jeremy are infatuated with. Jessy's vocals sound comfortably at home over the fluttering-pitched synths of 'Fuck Diamond' and the album's pop pinnacle, 'Keep Moving', where the tempo rises into classic disco, house and techno. 'Against The Wall' marches in with crunchy, metallic drums and a bumbling baseline, as the singer’s sweet, delayed voice rides a line through powerfully contrasting gurgling, strobing synths. 'Pull My Hair Back' is bittersweet, blue and soulful, shot through with driving, fizzling arpeggios. It balances cold, machine tooled precision with Jessy's beguiling, elevated vocals and her more intuitive, impressionistic keyboard playing. Lean and deadly, it leaves you craving more.
July 24 street date. Jessy Lanza meets the Teklife crew on this sultry EP, with DJ Spinn and Taso's first-released RnB track, and a Teklife footwork remix with assistance from the late DJ Rashad. The main mix is a dejected confessional slow jam with Jessy's plaintive vocal sitting in the middle of spiralling drums and teardrop-like chords, a gentle guitar refrain dropping in at the end like a comforting hand on the shoulder. Following an instrumental version, the Teklife mix doubles the tempo, switching the gentleness to deliver an interpretation that touches on tense anger, with the sweeping chords the track is built on snapping into shivering shapes, as strings simmer in the background, building the tension. Also included is Bambounou's remix of 'Fuck Diamond', a track on Jessy's ‘Pull My Hair Back’ debut album, which appears here on vinyl for the first time after an initial CD-only release last year on the ‘Hyperdub 10.4’ compilation). Bambounou transforms it into a rough drum machine workout, leaving sparse elements of the original in place - a splash of vocal and a held chord - building a dynamic trance that slips and slides in and out of different patterns.