Over the past couple of years, Los Angeles-based, indie electro pop duo Pr0files have become JOVM mainstay artists. And if you’ve been frequenting this site during that period, you may recall the duo’s backstory. Comprised of Comprised of Lauren Pardini (vocals, keys) and Danny Sternbaum, the project can trace its origins to when they were bandmates with Sonny Moore (who these days, you may known as mega-hit electronic music artist and producer Skrillex) in The Boy Traveller.
After The Boy Traveller split up, Pardini wrote for DJ Khalil’s camp and has written tracks for Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Drake, has collaborated with with Purity Ring’s Corin Roddick and was briefly a member of the acclaimed The Silver Lake Chorus. Sternbaum on the other hand started his own band Baby Monster, an act that toured with Klaxons, Miike Snow and Metric; and developed a reputation as a producer and remixer, who has remixed tracks by Ellie Goulding, Gorillaz, Foster the Children and Miami Horror. Together, Pardini and Sternbaum first won attention across the blogosphere with the release of “Call Yourself A Lover,” “Luxury” which established the duo’s reputation for a sound that possesses elements of R&B, pop and electronic dance music.
“I Know You Still Care,” the first single off the duo’s long-awaited full-length debut, Jurassic Technologie, felt and sounded 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 they’ve released to date. However, the album’s second single “Empty Hands” was a slow-burning and anthemic pop song comprised of layers of cascading synth stabs, swirling, atmospheric electronics, propulsive drum programming, incredibly catchy hooks, 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 and more contemporary fare, such as Haerts and St. Lucia.
The duo continues to build on the buzz of Jurassic Technologie‘s first two singles with the release of the album’s third and latest single “Like a Knife.” And much like the album’s first single, “Like a Knife” is a sleek and sultry song comprised of shimmering synths, bluesy guitar chords, wobbling and tumbling low end and Pardini’s sexy coos. And as a result, the song possesses an urgent, almost plaintive, sexual need — while pairing need, vulnerability and hurt simultaneously; after all, love and lust are in many ways part of the same complex array of emotions that we all have experienced and wanted without quite understanding it.
