Various Artists DJ Kicks: Jessy Lanza

Jessy Lanza has always made music that perfectly suits the mood – whether it’s the heads-down trance of the dancefloor or that hazy, post-club bliss. It’s no surprise for an artist that takes electronic music’s most intoxicating sensibilities and effortlessly reimagines them as experimental pop and R&B. The Canadian singer, producer and DJ from Hamilton, Ontario, has trodden an inspiring path which led to 2013’s boldly minimalist debut Pull My Hair Back, released on revered UK label Hyperdub. Gorgeously complex follow-ups Oh No – shortlisted for Canada’s prestigious Polaris Prize – and 2020’s All the Time crowned her as a singular talent in the left-of-pop sphere.
 
It’s with this genre-bending approach that Jessy Lanza presents her entry for the DJ-Kicks series – a sprawling, club-indebted odyssey that draws you in closer and closer with each listen. Recorded this summer, the mix is an incisive snapshot of her emotional landscape during the past 18 months. In 2020, with nothing but a van, a few personal belongings and her musical gear, Lanza and her partner relocated from New York City to the Bay Area to ride out the pandemic. A change of scenery, buoyed by the slower pace of their new home, gave her a fresh perspective during a worldwide screeching halt.
 
Jessy Lanza’s DJ-Kicks mix also arrives as a divine stroke of timing. As the world slowly starts to re-open, it’s a portal into the ecstatic energy of the dancefloor; an emblem of genuine healing – both personal and communal – that transports listeners to a state of pure euphoria.

2LP
A1 Jessy Lanza - Guess What
A2 Jessy Lanza - Seven 55 (feat. Loraine James) [DJ-Kicks]
A3 Jessy Lanza - Wet x3 (feat. Taraval)
A4 Oyubi - 140yaku

B1 Jim C. Nedd - Maleka
B2 Jessy Lanza - Heaving (feat. Taraval)
B3 Dee Jay Nehpets - Na Na Na
B4 DJ SWISHA - If the Shoe Fits

C1 CN - Anubis
C2 Lolina - A Path Of Weeds and Flowers
C3 Mafia Boyz - Teaspoon La Qoh
C4 The Raining Heart - Raining Heart

D1 Michael J. Blood - Lip Biter
D2 Markus Mann - I'm Losing
D3 Mr. Ho - Bail-E
D4 Golden Donna - Foaming