– THE QUIET RIOT –

This week, Pitchfork introduced the term ‘Conceptronica’ to the world – a pithy description for the way in which so much electronic music in the 2010s has felt like it belongs more in a museum than on a dancefloor.

And thank fuck for that, I say. All the best music is nerdy and sad and introspective anyway so why wouldn’t that be the case for the genre that’s most dominated by single blokes sitting in their bedrooms on their laptops.

London’s Elsa Hewitt is not a sad, lonely bloke (well, she’s not a bloke – I don’t know her well enough to comment on her state of mind nor general popularity or lack thereof). However, her music is very much in the Conceptronica non-genre. Built around guitar loops, field recordings and vocal harmonies, it’s a dreamy, dazed ‘n’ confused trip that is better suited to soundtracking a break-up than a blowout.

‘Tiny Dancer’, while not – sadly, in some ways – a tribute to the Elton John classic, is a shining example of that and the perfect slow immersion into her album ‘Citrus Paradisi’.

Like a perfect amalgam of notoriously gregarious, charismatic, definitely-not-single-blokes-on-laptops, Burial, Four Tet, Aphex Twin, Bonobo and Thom Yorke her music is simultaneously cerebral enough to engage the brain and compelling enough to get the toes tapping.

‘Citrus Paradisi’ is out now through ERH.

MORE FROM THIS WEEK’S MIX

G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE: GO CRAZY
HEMLOCK ERNST & KENNY SEGAL: DOWN
MATTHEW HALSALL: DISTANT LAND
MANU DELGADO: ZEITGEBER

P.S. You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

– SV –