- Kelly Lee Owens leans into more abstract material, sometimes gorgeous and sometimes abrasive.
- After sitting with some very personal themes on the tender, exquisite Inner Song, Kelly Lee Owens dives into the abstract on her latest record. With LP.8, co-produced by Norwegian noise artist Lasse Marhaug (who replaces previous collaborator James Greenwood, AKA Ghost Culture), she takes both the tranquil and harder edged sides of her music to new extremes, and finds fresh ways to incorporate her voice. Despite the name, this is her third album, not her eighth. The Welsh musician just has an affinity for the number—for its closed loop, its infinite look. That idea gels with LP.8's sounds, which oscillate between techno-inspired repetition and expansive calm. Where Inner Song marked a clearer, more exposed vocal style, LP.8 calls back to the shrouded feel of her debut LP. The album was made while stuck at home after canceling a planned world tour, and the insular, reflective moments of the early quarantine period hang over LP.8 like a persistent mist.
More ambient-leaning than her past work, much of LP.8 has a strong sense of comfort and calm, though it begins with a jolt. "Release" opens with Throbbing Gristle-like synths that pound and hiss on repeat, as Owens sings a trance-like mantra about bodies, movement and release in time with the beats. It sounds like both a mantra and a succinct mission statement: this is music about sensations, not ideas. The icy "Voice," with its skittering Aphex Twin-inspired beat and distant vocalizing, is equally minimalist, maintaining the meditative flow of "Release" while tingling the nerves with its stuttering movements. It feels like the gradual build-up towards some anthemic techno, before Owens takes a hard left.
"Anadlu" is the album's first foray into ambient. It's also the longest track at eight minutes, though it earns every one of them: wind chime twinkles accompany far-off, lumbering beats as Owens whispers in her native tongue, "anadlu allan" ("breathe out"). It's warm and soothing, like hiding under a blanket listening to Enya while a storm thunders outside. Owens cites Enya as one of the main sonic inspirations for LP.8, and "Olga" sounds especially indebted to the Irish artist, as Owens' wordless singing and gentle synths float and reverberate, conjuring the atmosphere of a vast, empty cathedral. Rounding out the mid-album trifecta of serenity is "S.O (2)," a newly-recorded remake of the opening track from her first album. Unlike that crossover house hit, this one cascades in waves of synth that envelop the listener in a cocoon of sound, recontextualizing what, for many listeners, was the first Kelly Lee Owens track they heard.
Speaking of personal history, "Nana Piano" feels like an intimate scene from Owens's memory. The dusty piano keys and bird chirps in the background bring to mind hearing a relative practice their sheet music in the early morning from down the hall—a welcome moment of real-world sounds amid the dreamy atmosphere of the rest of the album. "One" is also touching. as Owens sings, "You are the one you've been waiting for" over a bed of uplifting synth. Her' tender delivery and lyrics make you feel seen and taken care of, as if projecting the self-reflection of Inner Song back onto the listener.
Things take a seismic shift on the closer "Sonic 8," with its acidic electronics and ominous lyrics. "This is an emergency / This is a wakeup call," she warns in deadpan spoken word. It might be jarring, but the bold closer is in line with LP.8's charming unpredictability. It's a much less linear journey than we would expect from Owens, but it's also a welcome shift, an intriguing pivot from the very human themes of Inner Song. This time around, she invites the listener to wade through the fascinating depths of her imagination. It's hard not to close your eyes and surrender to the figure-eight flow.
Tracklist01. Release
02. Voice
03. Anadlu
04. S.O (2)
05. Olga
06. Nana Piano
07. Quickening
08. One
09. Sonic 8