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Kelly Lee Owens — Kelly Lee Owens (March 24, 2017)

Kelly Lee Owens — Kelly Lee Owens (March 24, 2017)

      Kelly Lee Owens — Kelly Lee Owens (March 24, 2017) Kelly Lee Owens — Kelly Lee Owens (March 24, 2017)Ξ»   Even in the increasingly crowded field of electronic music, Kelly Lee Owens’ debut album arrives as a wonderful surprise. An album that bridges the gaps between cavernous techno, spectral pop, and krautrock’s mechanical pulse, ‘Kelly Lee Owens’ brims with exploratory wonder, establishing a personal aesthetic that is as beguiling as it is thrillingly familiar.
Ξ»   Since Kelly Lee Owens unleashed her rework of Jenny Hval’s “Kingsize” in 2015, the Welsh musician’s output has started to converge her ever growing appetite for techno into the hazy soundscapes that previous songs like “Lucid” exhibited. With the first single from her debut self~titled record, “Anxi.,” a bonafide collaboration with Hval, Owens’ returns to the liminal space between pop and ambient, with dreams of the dancefloor in mind. Their new collaboration recalls Owens’ personal affinity for water — the track is slippery and prone to quick state changes. From the start, an ominous mood frames “Anxi.,” the result of Hval’s bizarre monologue, peppered with elliptical phrases like, “This is the narrative of reality.” Her spoken word vocals, move just slightly out of step and faster than Owens’ beat. Just when you’ve determined the song’s direction, Owens pulls it towards a steady pulse of techno~inflected thumps and bright melodies, and swerves right back to a spectral zone before the song cuts off. Between two states is where both of these artists excel. (Sean Stanley)Fotka uživatele Ben Tais Amundssen.
Location: London, UK
Album release: March 24, 2017
Record Label: Smalltown Supersound
Genre: Electronic, Pop
Style: Techno
Duration:     49:04
Tracks:
01   S.O     3:13
02   Arthur     4:05
03   Anxi.     3:47
04   Lucid     3:33
05   Evolution     4:03
06   Bird     5:15
07   Throwing Lines     3:07
08   CBM     4:59
09   Keep Walking     4:43
10   8     9:39
Credits:
Side A
01   S.O
Ξ»   Engineer — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By — Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Mixed By — David Oversby~Powell
Ξ»   Written By, Producer — Kelly Lee Owens
02   Arthur
Ξ»   Engineer — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By — Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Written By, Producer, Mixed By — Kelly Lee Owens
03   Anxi.
Ξ»   Engineer — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By — Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Mixed By — David Oversby~Powell
Ξ»   Written By, Producer — Kelly Lee Owens
Ξ»   Written By, Vocals — Jenny Hval
04   Lucid
Ξ»   Engineer — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By — Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Mixed By — David Oversby~Powell
Ξ»   Written By, Producer — Kelly Lee Owens
05   Evolution
Ξ»   Engineer, Mixed By — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By — Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Written By, Producer — Kelly Lee Owens
06   C.B.M
Ξ»   Engineer, Mixed By — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By — Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Written By, Producer — Kelly Lee Owens
Side B
07 Throwing Lines
Ξ»   Engineer — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By – Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Mixed By — David Oversby~Powell
Ξ»   Written By, Producer — Kelly Lee Owens
08 Bird
Ξ»   Engineer — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By — Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Mixed By — David Oversby~Powell
Ξ»   Written By, Producer — Kelly Lee Owens
09  Keep Walking
Ξ»   Co~producer, Written By, Mixed By — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Engineer — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By — Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Written By — Daniel Avery
Ξ»   Written By, Producer, Mixed By — Kelly Lee Owens
10   8
Ξ»   Engineer, Mixed By — James Greenwood
Ξ»   Mastered By — Mandy Parnell
Ξ»   Written By, Producer — Kelly Lee Owens
Notes
Ξ»   Comes with a CD version of the album in a white, unmarked cardboard sleeve.
Ξ»   “Keep Walking” is misspelled as “Keeping Walking” in the credits on the back cover.
Credits on the back cover also state:
Ξ»   Photography and layout by Kim Hiorthøy
Ξ»   Back cover also features acknowledgements for the help and support Owens received from family, label, etc. It closes with a quote from Goethe: “Whatever you dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power & magic in it. Begin it now.”
Review
PIOTR ORLOV, March 16, 2017. 12:00 AM ET
Ξ»   Kelly Lee Owens’  self~titled debut is a folk~pop album ~ kind of like how Arthur Russell, a longtime hero of the singer/songwriter/producer for whom she names the collection’s wonderful second track, is a folk~pop artist. That is, completely and not all. Its melodies are effortless, romantic and repetitive; its atmosphere replete with pastoral open spaces and the kind of spiritual longing at the heart of human intimacy. Ξ»   Like many of Russell’s finest labors, the 28~year~old Welsh~born Londoner’s album features the hallmarks of current dance~music culture — computer, synth and drum~machine textures (or their laptop plug~in variants), an omniscient club groove fueled by occasional bass blasts — yet sounds like the work of an old soul, filled with inner truths that people operating in music and technology often choose to bypass. Ξ»   Which is funny, because few intertwined human undertakings are older than emotion and the dance.
Ξ»   It says a lot about both today’ s club and singer~songwriter cultures that Owens’  take is such an anomaly. Beyond the extraordinary figure of Bjork, the heart~on~sleeve work of Dani Siciliano, or Tracey Thorn’s work in Everything But The Girl, it’s hard to identify many artists who’ve successfully integrated a true lyrical experience (as opposed to just words, or party~starting exultations) and self~produced deep beats.
Ξ»   Owens, who wrote and produced the album (her gateway agents to club music, Daniel Avery and James “Ghost Culture” Greenwood, appear on one track), incorporates both of these worlds effortlessly. And she does so in a variety of sonic frameworks: She’s as focused on the places where words bear utmost importance as where they need to evaporate into pure rhythm or drone.
Ξ»   Some of the album’s best moments occur when emotion and groove intertwine, forming Owens’  unmistakable point of view. “Throwing Lines” is an innocently moody pop~house track that glides on Owens’ wordless vocal melody and rises alongside a chorus of nearly pure hope (“This could be bright again / This could be brighter...”). Or “Anxi.,” an incredible collaboration with the Norwegian artist/singer Jenny Hval, on which the pair's voices play off each other, Hval chattering against the fourth wall in the background and Owens cooing another gorgeous chorus line (“Time was, foreseen / Nothing was happening”).
Ξ»   At other times, the electronic mind~set reframes a more timeless vibe. The words of “Keep Walking,” a ballad of sorts, inhabit a distant urban gaze, but the interaction of Owens’ warm voice and the lo~fi symphonic background (organ, cursory drum~machine hi~hat) give it the feel of a faux Phil Spector production...or rather a styled, modern demo of one. Or there’s “Arthur,” an older track (originally self~released on vinyl in 2015, now on Bandcamp) that is, in many ways, one of the album’s dog stars: an instrumental heavy with outdoor airs (a burning fire, a rainstorm), layers of Owens’ voice as primary melody, another lo~fi hi~hat and a one~note cello figure that is the final breadcrumb back to Russell’s work.
Ξ»   Arthur was a master of this kind inferred emotional gravity, and it’ s safe to say that at least some of that can be attributed to his nearly lifelong Buddhist practice. Owens also deeply harbors the teachings of core meditative beliefs — in interviews, whether prompted or not (I have no idea), she continually returns to discuss the experience of training to be a nurse in a Manchester cancer ward when she was younger, and that moment’s lessons. I don’t know if “8,” the drone~centered, largely~instrumental piece that closes the album, is named as such because the number is the inverted symbol for infinity, but that would not be surprising. Amidst the deep bass, sitar~like sustains, thick synths, and faraway metallic chug, Owens, in her own words, “free~styled a little.” Her improvised lyrics? “See it ... grow.”
Ξ»   http://www.npr.org/
oundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kellyleeowens
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kellyleeowens
Bandcamp: https://kellyleeowens.bandcamp.com/Fotka uživatele Ben Tais Amundssen. © Photo credit: Kim Hiorthøy
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Kelly Lee Owens — Kelly Lee Owens (March 24, 2017)

ALBUM COVERS XI.