It’s CMJ week yet again and of course, it means that I’m running around trying to catch a number of sets at various showcases across town, as well as connecting with friends, associates and colleagues. Of course, that also means extremely long days and nights of live music, so the amount of posts I’m able to commit to this week will be somewhat sporadic at best, until things slow down later on this weekend/early next week. (Such is the life of a busy blogger, right?)
In any case, let’s get to the immediate business at hand . . .
If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past couple of years, you may recall coming across a couple of posts about the Los Angeles-based, indie electro pop duo Pr0files. It’s been some time since I’ve written about them, so some backstory will likely be necessary: Comprised of Lauren Pardini (vocals, keys) and Danny Sternbaum, Pr0files can trace their origins to when Pardini and Sternbaum were bandmates alone with Sonny Moore, best known these days as mega-hit electronic music artist Skrillex in The Boy Traveller. When the project split up, Pardini went on to write for Pardini went on to write for DJ Khalil’s camp and has written tracks for Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Drake; she also has collaborated with Purity Ring’s Corin Roddick and was briefly a member of The Silver Lake Chorus. Sternbaum on the other hand started his own band Baby Monster, an act that has toured with Klaxons, Miike Snow and Metric; and as a producer and remixer, Sternbaum has remixed tracks by Ellie Goulding, Gorillaz, Foster the Children and Miami Horror.
As Pr0files, the duo of Pardini and Sternbaum won attention across the blogosphere with the release of singles “Call Yourself A Lover,” “Luxury” and others for a slickly produced sound that possesses elements of R&B, electro pop and electronic dance music that for their earliest releases bore an uncanny resemblance to Beacon. However, “I Know You Still Care,” the first single off the duo’s long-awaited full-length debut, Jurassic Technologie, feels and sounds like a decided change in sonic direction, as the song possessed an urgent, insistent sensuality reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder‘s legendary work in the 1970s, as the song consisted of layers of shimmering and cascading synths, skittering percussion paired with Padroni’s seductive cooing to create what may arguably have been the duo’s most sensual and straightforward dance track.
The duo’s latest single “Empty Hands” is slow-burning and anthemic pop song comprised of layers of cascading synth stabs, swirling, atmospheric electronics, propulsive drum programming and Pardini’s earnest, pop belter/torch song vocals to craft a song that sounds as though it owes a debt to 80s synth pop (for some uncanny reason I thought of Howard Jones‘ “It Can Only Get Better“) and more contemporary fare, such as Haerts and St. Lucia.
