MUSIC
Dorian Electra’s Return “Project”
Non-binary hyperpop singer falls short of last year’s standard
BY STEVE ERICKSON
The cliché that an artist
has their entire life to
prepare for a debut album
and only a year or
two to work on the follow-up is often
true. It helps explain why musicians
frequently come so strong
out the gates and can’t back it up
with their second albums.
Non-binary hyperpop singer
Dorian Electra released their fi rst
song in 2010 but waited till last
year to drop their debut album,
“Flamboyant.” When they began
making music, they were a libertarian,
singing the praises of economist
Friedrich Hayek over piano.
Their politics have moved to the
left, and their sound has become
much more electronic (although it’s
infl uenced both by baroque music
and heavy metal). “Flamboyant”
fi ts into a niche with artists like
100 gecs, Arca, Charli XCX, and
Moving Beyond the Paranoia
Marie Davidson’s new band confi dently embraces the 1980s
BY STEVE ERICKSON
Dance music lyrics are
often merely functional
placeholders, but Quebecois
vocalist/ producer
Marie Davidson’s past few albums
have been built around her perspective
as a hard-working but
disenchanted artist.
She has a unique approach,
which she’s described as “spoken
text” (as opposed to “spoken
word”). She delivers her words in a
fl at tone as much as she sings, going
back and forth between French
and heavily accented English.
Her third and fourth solo albums,
“Adieux au dancefl oor” and
“Working Class Woman,” refl ected
a growing cynicism with the culture
she’s seen as she became increasingly
popular touring EDM
festivals. She declared that she
Dorian Electra’s new “project,” “My Agenda,” is available October 16.
played her last gig performing “live
hardware club music” last September.
When she released her tranceinspired
single “Chasing the Light”
last year, she made a similar statement
about leaving dance music
behind.
Davidson has formed a band,
L’oeil Nu with Pierre Guerineau
and Asaël R. Robitaille, whose debut
album veers away from dance
beat toward rock, pop, and even
jazz infl uences.
“Renegade Breakdown,” the title
track of her new album with L’oeil
Nu, shows Davidson at her most
sarcastic. She sings “there are no
money-makers on this record/ this
time, I’m exploring the losers’ point
of view… my life is anti-strategic,
lying between comic and tragic.”
But from there, the album has
a warmer sound. “Back to Rock”
DORIANELECTRA.COM
suggests an ‘80s hard rock power
ballad, built around piano and
both acoustic and electric guitar.
“Just In My Head” luxuriates in
warm vibraphone and strings. Although
the background of L’Oeil
Nu’s members is in electronic music,
they worked with outside musicians
to supply live instrumentation
on this album. This is quite a
contrast from the carefully recorded
and mixed but harsh electronics
of “Working Class Woman.”
The website Resident Advisor released
a short documentary about
Davidson earlier this year as part
of its “Behind the Beats” series.
Following her on tour, it reveals
her isolation as a working musician.
Although she makes a living
traveling from one festival to the
next, she’s not a DJ. Working with
a set-up of synthesizers, sequencers,
and drum machines that she
SOPHIE, a form of abrasive, glitchy
pop inspired by the PC Music label.
Hyperpop has proven to be a refuge
from the mainstream’s narrow
ideas about gender. The genre often
uses Autotune and other forms of
digital vocal processing to distort,
speed up, and slow down vocals,
challenging the idea singers should
use their “natural” voice, creating
a space that distances vocal tone
from biological limitations.
Even going back to “I’m In Love
with Friedrich Hayek,” Electra’s
lyrics have always had a conceptual
center. At best, they offer comic
social commentary with a heart; at
worst, they’re novelty songs. “Adam
& Steve” addressed homophobia
with a sense of humor; “Career
Boy” shouted out gay businessmen
and acknowledged Electra’s own
hustle to get their music noticed.
“My Agenda,” which Electra in-
➤ DORIAN ELECTRA, continued on p.31
lugs around Europe herself in a
large crate, she says she sees herself
as more akin to a rock band.
(This live clip shows how she sets
up the backing tracks of her songs,
sings over them, and tweaks them
live.)
But while she plays to large, enthusiastic
crowds — she comments
that she thought they were just
there for the festival but then gets
startled when they know the words
to her songs — she tours alone, her
insomnia aggravated by constant
motion between time zones. It’s
no wonder that her most popular
song, “Work It,” takes rhetoric evoking
self-care and Instagram hustle
culture and makes it sound utterly
joyless, more akin to putting in a
shift at the factory. “Working Class
Woman” also included the bluntly
➤ MARIE DAVIDSON, continued on p.31
October 8 - October 22, 2 30 020 | GayCityNews.com
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