Following an EP and a series of collaborations and mixtapes, singer/producer Lafawndah has just released the incredible single Tan. We are in love.
Lafawndah released a four-track debut EP in April 2014, immediately establishing herself as a force to be reckoned with. Born in Paris, the artist has lived in Tehran, Mexico and New York among other places, which is totally unsurprising considering that her thrilling sound is remarkably, impressively difficult to define. Whatever it is, it is the future, and it is everything.
Real name Yasmin Duboise, Lafawndah has found her new home at Warp Records (Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada etc.) Lead single Tan was released along with a self-directed video clip, and the announcement that a new EP – also titled Tan – will be following in February 2016. While her 2014 EP was recorded on the island of Guadalupe in the Caribbean, Tan was recorded on Fire Island, off the Long Island shore in New York. Interestingly, she has stated that Tan is titled so in reference to the late, great jazz legend Duke Ellington, “dedicating his musical Jump for Joy ‘to the Suntanned Tenth of the Nation,'” she told The FADER.
The video for Tan was directed by Lafawndah and Nick Weiss, who also co-produced the song along with Tamer Fahri, is dazzling and incredibly surreal. Book-ended by a room and robust performer doused in gold and jewels, is a stark interpretive dance scene. It’s an increasingly common theme in music videos these days, and when it works, it really works. The song itself is one of the most exciting, seductive tracks we’ve heard in a long time. Jarring yet enticing, it’s not the easiest to swallow, but it tastes so damn good.
Tan comes out on February 5 via Warp Records.
