Last year, London-based producer Klein's self-released albums — Only and Lagata — gained her attention and support from artists like Bjӧrk and Blood Orange's Dev Hynes. Now, she's been picked up by Hyperdub, and her first release for them, Tommy, makes evident how she caught the ear of some of the most respected names in the industry.
Tommy is chaotic and unnerving. Every haunting, disconnected element of each track, and ultimately the entire album, exists in a world in which they push against each other, against the seams, against the void, to create context and explore themes of vulnerability, tragedy and death. Klein takes live vocals and piano and pulls them apart until they're absolutely ghostly, and entirely otherworldly; saying track "B2k" is disconcerting, for example, would be putting it mildly, given its shadowy vocal chops and blustering static.
Through fragmentation, each track finds cohesion, making deconstruction — the silences, gaps, twisted repetitions, abrupt cuts, looped production, harried noise — the story itself.
(Hyperdub)Tommy is chaotic and unnerving. Every haunting, disconnected element of each track, and ultimately the entire album, exists in a world in which they push against each other, against the seams, against the void, to create context and explore themes of vulnerability, tragedy and death. Klein takes live vocals and piano and pulls them apart until they're absolutely ghostly, and entirely otherworldly; saying track "B2k" is disconcerting, for example, would be putting it mildly, given its shadowy vocal chops and blustering static.
Through fragmentation, each track finds cohesion, making deconstruction — the silences, gaps, twisted repetitions, abrupt cuts, looped production, harried noise — the story itself.