Mijn account

LSDXOXO - DOGMA

Name: LSDXOXO - DOGMA
Item: LSDXOXO - DOGMA
Author: Kiana Mickles

Gepubliceerd
Sep 18, 2024
Woorden
Kiana Mickles
Label
Because Music
BEC5614225
Uitgebracht
September 2024
Genres
Pop · Club · R&B

The king of bawdy club pop's long-awaited debut moves from the darkroom to the glittering dance floors of the '00s.
Delen
Rashad Glasgow used to be the underground's best-kept secret. Before his move to Berlin in 2017, he trotted through the grungy Cabaret Law-era New York scene with USBs full of sumptuous techno cuts and prized edits that banged hard, but never without a hint of irony. Some ten years after his first mixtapes as LSDXOXO, in which he blended club music, pop edits and ballroom, he's risen from DIY celebrity to something of a tastemaker within dance-adjacent mainstream pop: from opening for Beyoncé's Renaissance tour to DJing for Björk's Fossora party and turning in a snappy remix for Lady Gaga's Chromatica. While Glasgow straddled the pop world, he remained focused on his own creative projects. Since 2018, his beloved Floorgasm parties have touched down at clubs in Berlin and New York; on EPs Dedicated 2 Disrespect (2022) and Delusions Of Grandeur (2023), he swapped typically crunchy samples for polished original productions and premiered his punky, effortless vocals. After years spent remixing the icons, it was only a matter of time before he grabbed his own mic and stepped onto the stage. Surely, one can't be a DJ forever? The transition from the booth surprisingly wasn't plain sailing for a musician with connections to the industry's elite. When I interviewed Glasgow in 2021, he admitted to feeling nervous about hearing his own voice on the track. "I've always written music, but I just never thought that I would have the gall to be a vocalist. I've got a lot of social anxiety," he admitted. As many musicians striving toward reinvention must contend with, he also considered the possibility that the pivot to pop stardom might alienate some of his most loyal fans. But by the close of our conversation, he reinforced that change was necessary to ensure his creative growth. "My whole thing is that I never like to stay in one genre or in one area of exploration in music for too long," he said. "It's just a journey that I'm on and I think I'll be on for a long time." Thankfully, Glasgow decided to push forward on his artistic journey. On his debut album, DOGMA, he cleverly inverts millennium pop motifs to create an album that glitters with decadence. But, most notably, his sexy, unbridled productions now have a clear running narrative. DOGMA's short and sweet songs tell the story of an internationally touring megastar full of sex, glamour and missed connections. And, like all the finest pop stars, he builds a vivid world in which fantasy and fact coalesce. On a cursory listen, DOGMA might appear to piggyback off the recent dance wave of records mining from the '00s. But Glasgow has been pushing this sound since his GHE20G0TH1K days (particularly inspired by Björk, Kylie Minogue and N.E.R.D.). As an artist who's always mining from the era, Glasgow doesn't reach for easy references like bloghouse or stadium trance. Instead, he leans into the cheery nihilism of Lily Allen or the emotional mettle of nu-metal acts like Linkin Park, and with these touchstones in hand, makes heartbreak sound like the hottest new trend. On the perky "Brand New," he chirps, "my heart just got a brand new scar," as if he were bragging about an SSENSE haul instead of a dysfunctional relationship. Glasgow doesn't entirely abandon his long-standing saccharine pop influences; instead, he gives them devilish facelifts. "Black Light"'s driving ping-pong melody shares a striking resemblance to Kylie Minogue's 2001 hit, "Can't Get You Out of My Head." But whereas Minogue's breathy diva vocals basked in neon, Glasgow assumes an unaffected emo-punk lilt as he careens into the club's dark and seedy corners, as if he's done this countless times before. In a year of '00s revival, a genre given less love is recession-era R&B (you know, when Fabolous and The Dream corralled hearts by assuring women they could throw it in the bag). Glasgow embraces flashy R&B with watery Auto-Tune and catchy lyrics that turn every other word into a punchline. This is most apparent on the glitched-out "Girls Girls Girls," where he channels the raunchy comedy of Young Money's "Bedrock" with fun, if not a little cheesy, lyrics that ooze with early '00s references like "dip it low like Cristina Milian" and "waterfalls like TLC / Let's black out baby, B.E.T.." These influences run down into the production, too. On "Ghost," Glasgow chalks his romantic flakiness up to life on the road, but a blipping synth line reminiscent of Soulja Boy's "Kiss Me Thru The Phone" almost makes Glasgow's fame-induced inconsistencies sound demure. But, of course, underneath the veneer of glamour and designer clothes, Glasgow is still flesh and blood. He unveils this emotional range on "Blinded," where he plays the whispering rapper to counter Rochelle Jordan's airy vocal runs: "Let us intertwine now / And find out / If we can forge a key to the peace." For a rare moment, Glasgow, a musician loved for his cheek, wears his scarred heart on his couture sleeve—and vulnerability looks good on him. While some fans might miss the fun, unrestrained sampling on Glasgow's earlier records, DOGMA is the product of a successful producer with over ten years on everyone's mood board. How realistic is it for someone entering the mainstream world to continue putting out club tracks for DIY spaces that have long shuttered? But in an album of many firsts, there are still hallmarks of the old Glasgow. "Witching Hour" brings it back to the dusty, lo-fi breaks of his 2018 breakout EP Body Mods, while on "Wasteland," eerie production makes generous use of vocal pitch effects, lowering his voice to growling sneers and helium-induced twitters. The latter calls to mind the cartoonish vocals that ballooned over LSDXOXO tracks that worked the New York underground years ago. Rushing us to the present again, the track crackles with an emo-pop grit that sounds like a better version of all of his nerdy influences. It's in these moments, when Glasgow's locked into his groove, that his vision feels most realised.
Tracklist