Avalon Emerson’s musical identity was forged on the dancefloor, but her outlook has never been limited to the confines of the club. The San Francisco native first found her artistic footing while DJing at raucous Bay Area warehouse parties, Emerson – who moved to Berlin in 2014 and quickly became a regular behind the decks at the city’s famed Berghain.
With humble beginnings she is now celebrated as a contemporary figure in the dance music scene, known for her melody-rich, genre-agnostic selections. She’s cemented a legacy for lighting up dancefloors around the world, it’s always an occasion seeing her play in your city.
Avalon Emerson loves dance music, but when the time came to make her long-awaited debut album, another dance record was not on the cards. She wanted to make something timeless, and that’s just what she’s done. This is an album that gives us perhaps the most insight we’ve ever had into who Avalon Emerson really is.
Whilst she’s always had a pop undercurrent in her work, her debut album, ‘Avalon Emerson & The Charm’, is a distinct strain of synth-pop that takes inspiration from avant-pop auteurs. It still features snippets of sound linked to her live sets, but crucially the LP focuses on a new kind of songcraft and features Emerson’s voice. The artistic plunge to express something different, and far more personal has well and truly paid off. Bullion, a UK avant-pop savant, produced the record, and the album is a deeply lyrical effort that navigates relationships and reflections on day-to-day life.
Emerson employs The Charm as a body of work, produced with an array of like-minded artists. Over the course of the record, she navigates relationships as rocky as the Sonoran desert on the first single ‘Sandrail Silhouette’, she sings “hot dunes an oasis, more ancient than the rocks between us”.
‘Karaoke Song’ sees her reflect on the ethereal nature of intimacy, asking questions to a lost lover – “does your life now make you feel complete… where did the time go”. The track was praised by the masses when it was released last week. The narrative on the album then shifts toward meditations on betrayal in ‘Entombed In Ice’. ‘Astrology Poisoning’ propels you into Emerson’s introspective gaze, of contemporary anxieties we can all relate to – “the world is a fuck, and accelerating… these people aren’t your friends”. The incorporation of lyrics into the album is without doubt the highlight, almost instantly re-contextualizing the tracks, inviting the listener to extrapolate meaning.
This record really does feel like a crucial chapter in the story of Avalon Emerson, a revised creative approach with synth-pop underpinnings, drenched in melancholy. This notable departure from the dancefloor not only brings fans of her previous music and live sets along for the ride, but also wholeheartedly welcomes those who might never have set foot in the club.
8/10
Words: Josh Crowe
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