Almost exactly a year ago, the UK dance producer and singer Kelly Lee Owens released Dreamstate, a very good album that really snuck up on me. Since then, Owens has been playing tons of shows and DJ sets, and I was bummed to miss her at Primavera earlier this year. Next month, she'll follow Dreamstate with Kelly, a new EP dedicated to more intense club sounds.
In a press release, Owens says, "This EP is about embodying sound and those collective, physical experiences we only really have in clubs or at music events. Sonically, it’s very visceral. I’ve been drawn to sounds that sit on the edge: ominous, uneasy, sometimes even uncomfortable. That’s just where I’ve been emotionally, and I think the world reflects that too. There’s this constant push and pull between wanting to rise above the chaos, and sometimes, willingly sinking into it." I don't think opening track "Ascend" is that visceral, but there's some cathartic uplift in its jittery rave thump, and I like how she draws out the tension before the big, crowd-pleasing drop. Check it out below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Ascend"
02 "132 Techno"
03 "Descend"
04 "Lose Your Head"
The Kelly EP is out 11/21 on dh2.
