Connected through mutual acquaintances,
Jessy Lanza was sought by
Jeremy Greenspan to contribute background vocals for
Junior Boys'
It's All True.
Greenspan reciprocated by helping
Lanza, a music teacher who studied jazz performance and piano, get her head around a bank of synthesizers and drum machines inherited from her father. The pair's time together developed into a recording collaboration that resulted in Pull My Hair Back,
Lanza's Hyperdub debut. Two months prior to its release, she appeared on labelmate
Ikonika's "Beach Mode," in which she provided a wispy and melismatic but slightly cutting lead. That approach continues all the way through this brief, mostly subdued, sonically rich set.
Lanza cites electronic R&B wiz
Kashif -- forebear to the likes of
Timbaland,
the Neptunes, and
the-Dream -- as a favorite, and she admires
Evelyn King, one of that producer's beneficiaries, but she never aspires to that range and rarely breaks a sweat. Sweetly remote with an assertive and nonchalantly explicit streak,
Lanza takes more from the breathier phrasings of
Mariah Carey and
Aaliyah and occasionally resembles an ecstatic version of
the xx's Romy Madley Croft. It's easy to imagine
Greenspan singing most of the leads. The productions, like many
Junior Boys tracks, are pared down, supple, dimly lit -- full of cushiony beats, rippling synthesizers, clicking/rattling percussion, and liberal use of reverb. It's a variation on
the JBs' dubbed-out compound of synth pop and post-disco, and it suits
Lanza's voice to enticing effect. ~ Andy Kellman