Editor’s Pick: spectral and dreamlike, ‘Hard/Soft’ is a beacon of Jennifer Loveless’ brilliance
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26.02.2020

Editor’s Pick: spectral and dreamlike, ‘Hard/Soft’ is a beacon of Jennifer Loveless’ brilliance

Words by Tom Parker

Canadian-born and Melbourne-based, Jennifer Loveless is a household name in electronic neighbourhoods.

A producer who’s a creative runaway, she crafts beats so enigmatic and indefinable they always seem just out of reach.

Having played festivals and parties the world over, supporting the likes of DJ Sprinkles, Floating Points and Jacques Greene to name a few, Loveless now emerges with her debut release, Hard/Soft. The EP is a 20-minute continuous piece that features three distinct segments.

Opening cut, ‘Flowers’, is a soundtrack to a deep-sea odyssey, where vampire squid waft, and anglerfish run wild. What begins as an unnerving, eerie passage opens up to a submerged forest of colour and vibrance. A circling drum machine underlines ambient flickers that rise and fall before quickly fleeing.

‘Tinnitus’ picks up from where ‘Flowers’ left off before kicking things into gear. It’s a 5am heater fit for hazy dancefloors that pulses like a ketamine trip, disorientating and intense.

By ‘Tinnitus’ we’ve found our groove and through ‘DCS’ we’ve got a clearer picture of Loveless’ artistic vision. As she contrasts a visceral bassline with soft keyboard lines, Loveless concludes the narrative with an earnest poem that loiters in the song’s shadows.

This EP is spectral, dreamlike, and a telling confluence of Loveless’ inspiration and influence.