JJS
I got to see Gel Set perform live and really loved her sound and sense of wit. I also like that this album is an art piece (see description). Love Problems is my favorite track and has an amazing video to go with it, but really I'm a little obsessed with all of Side A
Favorite track: Love Problems.
Something about the crime of a home invasion feels especially sinister. The home, a person’s sacred temple from the cruel world, penetrated by an unwelcome force. A masked man holding braided rope and knife, clad in a striped shirt like a cartoon burglar. A door-to-door salesman with a pleasant grin but dark desires. At best, you end up tied to a chair with your flatscreen in the back of a van, and at worst…well, plenty of true crime mythos cover worst case scenarios.
So what of a tone invasion? A song can shatter our peace and ruin a trip to the drugstore with memories of a relationship that soured. Another can soothe our pain by reminding us that we’re not alone. Sounds too, it seems, have the power of an invader, with consequences both catastrophic and cathartic. This is what Laura Callier (AKA Gel Set) had in mind while recording her latest album. On Tone Invasion she harnesses that power, shining a flashlight inward and exposing the many traps the mind lays for us.
In keeping with the record’s theme, Callier invited an invader of her own into her recording process, asking Noah Anthony (AKA Profligate) to mix the album. It was the first time she’d brought in an outside collaborator for her solo work, and Callier was understandably hesitant. “I feared that if a male touched my songs, he'd end up getting all the credit, as sometimes happens in this world,” she explains. “Noah had my explicit instructions to only mix the album and not touch anything else, but to my chagrin I absolutely loved the other suggestions he had.” In the end, an outside perspective proved refreshing, and Anthony ended up co-producing and contributing original instrumentation to several songs.
Her first release as Gel Set since 2017’s captivating Body Copy, Tone Invasion wields the same multifaceted electro-pop, this time with even more precision. “Feed Me” is a synth-y, shimmering treatise on addiction, while “It Has Come to Our Attention” is a pulsing, tongue-in-cheek rumination on media manipulation. The languorous “Where the Ocean Meets the Land” is about struggling with waves of depression, while the pulsating “Where’s My Freak” is about acceptance. Groovy standout “Virtual Love” is about escaping reality on the internet, while “Next Exit” is about escaping reality by, well, escaping. Over a haunting keyboard riff, “In the Wall” takes a more literal approach to the theme of invasion: it’s about a rat problem at Callier’s old house.
No matter the song’s subject, it’s Callier’s deft command of these sonic interlopers that makes Tone Invasion so infectious. Her crystal-clear vocals add a sense of winking levity to the whole thing; assuring us that there’s still some fun to be had in darkness.
credits
released April 30, 2021
Written by Laura Callier
Produced by Noah Anthony and Laura Callier
Additional Instrumentation by Noah Anthony
Vocal Recording by Hotel Earth
Mastered by Alex Michalski
I've always enjoyed Boy Harsher but I don't think they ever really clicked in my brain until I watched The Runner. Now I can't get enough. Gordon Skramzy (Nathan)
as i stand in the darkness of the night city i can do nothing but admire the view as i spin around the roof of a skyscraper with arms wide open senrente
The debut full-length from noted game composer Megan McDuffee is slick and moody electropop with more than a hint of darkness. Plus vocals! Bandcamp New & Notable May 13, 2021
The new EP from South Africa's DJ Stix shows off the many facets of house music, from luxurious and loungey to hard-hitting and deep. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 15, 2023
Saw them open for Health in March, 2024 and had to pick this up. I have been playing Alphapussy and Club Mania on repeat. Rest of the album rips too! inflatable_dream