For Detroit-born, Brooklyn-based producer Lauren Flax, the dancefloor is a space to work through trauma and experience joyful catharsis. This philosophy crystallizes in dazzling shape on the Liz & Lauren EP, recorded with Elizabeth Wight of 2MR labelmate Pale Blue on vocals. Flax channels her “sad, horny ‘’90s teenage raver” self into four songs (and one remix) that explore love, infatuation, and the dire state of the world today in improbably anthemic fashion.
Flax and Wight first appeared together in 2020, when Flax remixed Pale Blue’s “Breathe,” the title track of an EP that used tough-edged acid-house production and Wight’s hushed tones to explore the impact of domestic abuse. Inspired by her remix’s melodic, surreal, and rather unsettling style, Flax shifted away from the robust Detroit acid of her earlier releases to deliver 2021’s Out of Reality EP, a record that reflected her disappointment at humanity’s lack of progress in a gothic house style.
The Liz & Lauren EP is cut from the same cloth. Desolate chord sequences meet acidic scraps to create contemplative electronic moods that exist somewhere between the dancefloor and the after party. The BPMs, busy bass drums, and clattering breaks incite bodily motion; but the bone-weary vocal delivery makes the listener want to slip back into the comfort of a warm armchair. “Fix Everything” is a reaction to critical issues from the rise of religious extremism to global warming, and a sense of fatigue is audible in the song’s call for change.
There’s nothing here that would have felt out of place among the softer side of Detroit techno or the early-’90s progressive house it later inspired. The breakbeats and blue-note chord changes of “Fix Everything” and “I’d Risk It All to Be With You” are reminiscent of Future Sound of London’s progressive rave heartbreaker “Papua New Guinea” or onetime Andrew Weatherall proteges One Dove. The chugging bass drum and synth riffs of “I Don’t Want to Hurt You” call back to Spooky, a London duo whose early releases helped establish progressive house’s signature mixture of melody, atmosphere, and rhythm.
But thematically—and in terms of overall feel—the Liz & Lauren EP is very much in its own field. Contrasting with the upbeat drive of much club music, the dark subject matter and Wight’s pained-to-the-point-of-tears delivery are reminiscent of the emo rap of Lil Peep et al., albeit rendered far more tenderly. Wight is capable of expressing subtle emotional shifts with the slightest crack of her voice, and her delivery dances an unlikely pas de deux with Flax’s beats, landing halfway between ASMR and the rave. (The “MASC Remix” of “I’d Risk It All to Be With You,” which does away with most of Wight’s vocals, is a far more conventional and less rewarding club number.)
The production is polished to perfection, a notable step up in quality from Flax’s Out of Reality in its ability to communicate complex emotion. “I Don’t Want to Hurt You” manages to convey the pain and guilt of romantic ambivalence in desolate chords, tinkling synth,and a sprinkling of 303, the lyrics topped off with a desperate, addictive chorus. As the song charges toward its climax, Wight repeats, “even if I’m not in love,” and the synths explode in a bittersweet rush of heartbreak; it’s a towering moment of emotional release, like ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” filtered through a sobering personal revelation.
Flax says she wouldn’t expect to hear these songs on the dancefloor, and they certainly wouldn’t fit in with the flow of a typical big-room DJ set. But for any and all of us who still feel that sad, horny teenage raver stirring in our DNA from time to time, Liz & Lauren is essential: four sorry anthems for anyone who has danced their way through their pain and insecurity, lost in the anonymity and forgiveness of a sympathetic club crowd.
