For Detroit-born, Brooklyn-based producer Lauren Flax, the dance floor is a space to work through trauma and experience a joyful catharsis. This philosophy crystallizes into dazzling shape in Liz & Lauren EP, recorded with Elizabeth Wight of 2MR label Pale Blue on vocals. Flax channels the “sad, horny teenage raver of the '90s” across four songs (and a remix) that explore love, romance, and the plight of the world today in incredible anthemic fashion.
Flax and Wight first appeared together in 2020, when Flax remixed Pale Blue's “Breathe,” the title track of a ER which used Wight's gritty acid production and low tones to explore the impact of domestic abuse. Inspired by the melodic, surreal and rather unsettling style of her remix, Flax has moved away from the powerful Detroit acid of her previous releases to deliver 2021 Out of reality ERa record that reflected her frustration with humanity's lack of progress in a gothic house.
The Liz & Lauren EP is cut from the same cloth. Desolate chord sequences meet acid scraps to create contemplative electronic moods that exist somewhere between dance floor and after party. BPMs, busy bass drums and breaks incite physical movement. but the tired vocal performance makes the listener want to slide back into the comfort of a warm armchair. “Fix Everything” is a reaction to critical issues from the rise of religious extremism to global warming, and a sense of weariness can be heard in the song's call for change.
There's nothing here that would feel out of place between the softer side of Detroit techno or the early '90s progressive house it later inspired. The breakbeats and blue-note chord changes of “Fix Everything” and “I'd Risk It All to Be With You” recall Future Sound of London's progressive rave, “Papua New Guinea” or Andrew Weatherall's one-time protégé One Dove. The pounding bass drums and synth riffs of “I Don't Want to Hurt You” return to Spooky, a London duo whose early releases helped create progressive house's signature blend of melody, atmosphere and rhythm.
But thematically—and in terms of overall feel—the Liz & Lauren The EP is very much in its own field. In contrast to the upbeat thrust of much club music, Wight's dark subject matter and pained delivery are reminiscent of the emo rap of Lil Peep and others, albeit rendered much more tenderly. Wight is capable of conveying subtle emotional shifts with the slightest crack of her voice, and her delivery dances an unlikely pas de deux to Flax's beats, landing halfway between ASMR and rave. (The “MASC Remix” of “I'd Risk It All to Be With You,” which removes most of Wight's vocals, is a much more conventional and less rewarding club number.)
