Getting deeper into his signature blending of Footwork, field recordings and vocal experiments, the French sound artist based in Le Mans Loâzo will unveil his third EP entitled pêle-mêle next Friday
There are so few electronic musicians that you can witness a decade-plus of career in the industry, thickening their sonic approach on each project, while remaining quite discrete, if not confidential. Romain Loiseau aka Loâzo is one of these odd birds, capable of artistically reinventing himself all three years without moving out from his original palette, which could be defined as a strange mixture of complex rhythm tailoring, childish ingenuity and fucked-up sonic atmosphere. He is returning to sport with a third solo EP entitled pêle-mêle. After Enfant in 2018, a first opus in which he focused mainly on reinterpreting memories of his childhood into ambient landscapes and dancefloor-ready tunes, and Albine released in 2021 on Parisian house-focused imprint Beat X Changers, taking its name from the southern French village where Loâzo composed the entire project back then.
On pêle-mêle, the French producer, drummer, sound designer and video editor based in the French western city of Le Mans showcases his ability to switch tempos, rhythms and melodies but maintain an atmosphere of extra-terrestrial playfulness. The EP is made of five tracks going from UKG-influenced beats to fierce Footwork, via Hybrid Bass and Hardcore continuum influences, all taking their musical roots in Loâzo’s love for Japanese 80’s ambient, north American and British club music as well as IDM and jazz. His highly recognizable use of vocal chopping, mixed with a delicate take on a sound design by the resampling of the homemade field recording material, is at the core of this new project. It gives the listener a sense of cinematography, moving us from one scene to another while consistently keeping our ears in tension by using a wide range of BPMs and tonalities, injecting both drama and hope into a highly animated and weird take on what still can be called “dance music”.
Before the full EP release next Friday, the 26th of April, you can now listen to the first extract, “Avant-deux de deux-mille-vingt-deux” above the present article. Named after the “avant-deux” which is a traditional French western dance from which Loâzo sampled some vocal parts, the track oscillates between Reggaeton, IDM and Juke drum patterns to, as the artist puts himself “immerses us in the middle of a celebration where traditional dance persists at the core of an urban environment, the forest is no longer there, we hurry to dance so as not to forget the ancient arts”. And thus, building bridges between ancestral music and future sounds, is a great program indeed!
Artwork by Sanae Nicolas.
Pre-order Loâzo’s third solo EP pêle-mêle on Bandcamp, with a release coming next Friday, April 26th 2024.
