how did i miss Eden Samara's album Rough Night??? incl. my memories of Local Action + my love for Jessy Lanza's music and DJing
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beautiful underground + pop adjacent music can get left behind. i'd like to talk about how I gave this album a chance and why you need to too! Rough Night has this sort of camp (respectfully) older pop sound, but with strong personal authenticity and sculpted club sounds. maybe its not that deep and I just don't know how they do it up in Canada 🤍❤
Scroll down to the 'time loop' stamp if you don't care about record labels! I think they're important though, especially when thinking about the space smaller artists have to work with!
I checked in on the label Local Action as they recently released Jennifer Walton's new album, a different sound than I was used to though Jennifer makes total since for the label given her roots. i first saw her with KKB like 6 (??) years ago and she has such a range with her music. but both this and Rough Night were different from what I was used to at Local Action, and each other. Both of these have real emotional weight to them and a very different sound, but maybe i missed something along the way.
if you're curious about how Local Action has grown, my memories of Local Action were stuck on something like DJ Q and Flava D's PS back in 2014 - total banger from back when TQD were showing us what bassline and garage could be, but not exactly the emotional depth that Rough Night and Jennifer's album would bring. the grimey In The Moonlight by Yaroze Dream Suite and Hannah Mack would be closer in that direction, but not the same. certainly not the split that DJ Q did of a bootleg of poison on side a and a rocky theme on the flip in the most mid 2015 bassline sound its so funny with the samples and built in hype. i wanna do nxc edits of them,
finally on to the music: Rough Night isn't something I'd be bumping in the impreza once its rolling, its with me while I'm enjoying a beautiful walk in the snow. my eyes were caught by the album cover in Local Action's shop with its color direction - this handful of blue shades create an icy blue tone that i adore. I wore my work outfit today inspired by it - not usually a Murakami wearer but this is the nwjnz collab so its bunnies! i swear!
I really enjoy the poppy clubby sounds for this album as it almost feels campy (respectfully) but has a veryyy modern perfection and almost hyperperfect synth palette that doesn't feel like generic 90s drum machine pop or somethin. HOWEVER, while some tracks in this album could get club play, the song I believe the most in here is "Growing Into Your New Skin". I've spent like 40 minutes thinking about how you could put this in a set, but even for someone who always tries to push out of safe playing styles, I don't think I could. this is probably something I'd only play for myself or in a very very perfect environment.
what keeps me thinking about Growing Into Your New Skin comes from its both bold yet abstracted production and lyrics. the instrumental breaks down and has this perfectly sculpted but airy and open synths something like a james blake song. which is matched in the lyrics. a song for people growing in life, likely of someone in their 20s, though it holds this wisdom that you always need a reminder of.
Its follow up track, track #4, is "Sophie' - which i would say is also a very great example of what Eden Samara's about. Its a track that possibly could get club play and create a special moment at 3:50am with the lights all dimmed realllll blue. its a emotionally sassy in the best way. single material and now that I go to check, I guess it was lol - the music video for it is so. more worth you just seeing it than reading about it.
If you're looking to hear the full tracklist, you'll find a cohesive sound palette and theme, though different explorations within that. 'The Local' and 'D4M' bring very poppy tracks that I'm sure would go great at a summer festy or the Orange Room on the right friday. I would totally play D4M with some Hessle Audio given the right venue. (*note i'm learning that Shanti Celeste produced The Local which is ironic now that I'm feeling slightly Hessle on this D4M). The opener, closer, and interlude maximizes what Eden can do with her synth palette, voice, and intentional style style for this project.
8 tracks with 1 being an interlude (with much value, the production throughout this album is so lush). i'm curious what earned it the title mini album - i hope it was for a positive reason. you never know what music biz thing pushes someone to make an extra track or two or omit something beautiful to hit a specific type of release. in my mind if you dropped one track off this, it could be a 7 track project that I'd still call it an album lol.
i also saw that a bandcamp buyer said this brings up a sound palette and tone similar to Jessy Lanza and I can get behind that. Jessy Lanza is one of my absolute favorite artists, but Eden is not just bootleg Jessy Lanza. her sound palette really matches and touches a spot in me while her lyrics are written in a way that blend right in and idk feels so vulnerable. I suppose it only matches up as I had this is as my laptop background for years:
the akai apc40 next to her was soooo cool when i first saw the photo. i was making a lot of music in the basement at the time line this with literally the same thing. it was passed on from my uncle :)
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