Kelly Lee Owens

Even in the increasingly crowded field of electronic music, Kelly Lee Owens' debut album arrives as a wonderful surprise. An album that bridges the gaps between cavernous techno, spectral pop, and krautrock's mechanical pulse, the 27 year old Londoner has made a debut album brimming with exploratory wonder, establishing a personal aesthetic that is as beguiling as it is thrillingly familiar. Before starting work on the self-produced, self-titled album, Owens turned her keen ear towards dance music after working with techno producer Daniel Avery in a London record store. You'll most likely have heard her voice and contributions on Avery's spectacular 2013 album Drone Logic, in which she lent her considerable talents to that album's title track and "Knowing We'll Be Here." Avery shows up on S/T as well with a co-write credit on the ghostly "Keep Walking," a track from the Drone Logic sessions that recalls the sinewave pop of late Broadcast singer Trish Keenan. Following Owens rework of Jenny Hval's track 'Kingsize' last year, the avant-pop artist also appears on S/T on the stunning "Anxi," a track that shifts from drifting tones and distant vocals to warm squelches and tunnel-vision club beats. "It has been my most freeing and open collaboration so far, and my first time working with a female", Owens says of working with Hval. "It was a very powerful experience for me, I felt she brought something strange and quite beautiful."