Stereolab’s Morgane Lhoter eleases debut Hologram Teen LP and first-ever video for ‘Bleecker Street! Chase Me!’
Well after seminal indie kosmische act Stereolab dissipated and its members parted ways to move along their own separate paths, long-term keyboard player MorganeLhote eventually emerged on the music scene a few years ago as Hologram Teen. This solo electronic motorik disco project has produced several 7″ and an EP. While the vinyl version was first released at the end of 2017 by London Label Polytechnic Youth, Hologram Teen’s debut album ‘Between The Funk and The Fear’ will be available digitally for the first time as of July 6.
Timed with this release, Hologram Teen presents a new video for the track ‘Bleecker Street! Chase Me!’, which was designed and animated by Jason Smith at “That Happy Studio”. The imagery entails a trippy and nightmarish discotastic chase scene in gritty NYC and has plenty of easter eggs for everyone.
“Bleecker Street! Chase Me!’ is one of the shortest songs on the album and the companion piece to ‘Brooklyn’s Broken! You Caught Me!’. I had a very cinematic vision for the track: a driving pulse evocating chase scenes from the late 70’s/early 80’s John Carpenter and Walter Hill movies but with a sinister slant to it. The song is set in NYC on the east side of the Bleecker Street subway station, where you see can disco-like honeycombs of LEDs on the ceiling. This digital art installation always fascinated me during my commute as it felt like being transported back to Studio 54 but in a super grimy setting. Very New York,” says MorganeLhote.
MorganeLhote recorded and performed with Stereolab during their imperial phase between 1995 and 2001, when they released a series of career defining albums including ‘Emperor Tomato Ketchup’. Later on, she did a stint in The Projects and, from 2005, played in Garden with members of Simian Mobile Disco before starting the Hologram Teen project. Having lived in Paris, NYC and London, she is now based in LA.
‘Between The Funk and the Fear’ includes 11 killer occasionally whacked-out tracks, inspired by a multitude of key figures from varying genres – the soundtracks of Goblin and John Carpenter, 1970s French Disco and psychedelic Brazilian rock, Congolese Soukous, and the string arrangements of François de Roubaix and Jean-Claude Vannier.
This release follows Hologram Teen’s widely acclaimed ‘Marsangst’ EP, released via Happy Robots Records last year. Apart from California’s Sukia, MorganeLhote is joined on his new album by Swedish musician Orange Crate Art, spicing up the proceedings. Long time collaborator Richard Bennett also mixed and produced all the songs on the LP, and the live instruments were recorded at his studio in Brooklyn, Error! Hyperlink reference not valid..
Although Hologram Teen embraces electronica and pop, she does so in a way that is more evocative of a prog rock disco horror soundtrack than the soulless EDM that fills the pop charts. Her approach in mixing creepy vintage library effects with bouncy dancehall synths and disco beats has won Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker over as one of her many newfound fans.
“With this first LP, I wanted to create the soundtrack to the trippiest horror movie ever, and combine the scary and the absurd, through a very tongue in cheek aesthetic both musically and visually. For this project, I decided to experiment with adding live instruments, such as bass, drums, and strings, instead of or in conjunction with electronic instruments on some tracks. It was especially interesting to merge both musical feels and textures into one cohesive narrative,” says Lhote.
‘Between The Funk and The Fear’ can be found across all the regular music stores and streaming platforms, as well as Bandcamp, where it is available exclusively for mail order.
TRACKLIST
01 Post-Apocalypteacakes
02 Bleecker Street! Chase Me!
03 Tracksuit Minotaur
04 God(d) of Thunder vs. Sukia
05 Roller Lover Doppelgänger
06 Hologram Teen &Brasil 666
07 Bartók in C
08 Brooklyn’s Broken! You Caught Me!
09 Lesbian Death Drums
10 MagiqueAfrique
11 Escape from Paris (Orange Crate Art Remix)
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