DJ - Kicks: Jessy Lanza (DJ Mix)

DJ - Kicks: Jessy Lanza (DJ Mix)

Since releasing her debut album, 2013’s Pull My Hair Back, Jessy Lanza has developed a singular style that draws on vintage freestyle, lo-fi synth-pop, and cutting-edge electronic music, rounded out by her breathy, alluring vocals. After three albums spent focusing her vision to a fine point, she zooms way out on her DJ-Kicks mix, placing her own songs—like the fluttering trap of “Seven 55,” featuring Loraine James—in a wider club-music context. There’s no missing Lanza’s fingerprints, in part because she occasionally picks up the mic to sing over the mix, even when the records aren’t hers. But the set casts a far wider stylistic net than her albums do, taking in shuddering acid house (DJ Spookie’s “Twilite”), sparkling Afropop (Jim C. Nedd’s “Maleka”), minimal techno (Secret Werewolf’s “Yage”), and more. The first half tends to ride a rolling, house-oriented groove; GRAIN’s “Untitled B2” (a 2002 cult classic from an alter ego of Magnetic Man member Artwork) tips things in a bassier direction, kicking off a stretch of UK funky, garage, electro, and footwork, all of it seamlessly mixed with both grace and character—no easy feat when corralling a range of styles this wide. She wraps things up with a stroke of pure genius: The Raining Heart’s “Raining Heart,” a 1986 slice of synthy slow-jam R&B—straight out of Germany, of all places—that sounds like she’s rescued it from the cassette deck of an ’80s Impala. It’s a reminder that when Lanza’s at the wheel, the vibe remains soulful, no matter what.

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