Jennifer Lee has always risen to the challenge. Better known as TOKiMONSTA, Lee came up in the late-aughts L.A. beat scene, gaining cred for her smart sampling and adroit drum programming at Project Blowed and Low End Theory; she later became the first woman to be signed to FlyLo’s label Brainfeeder with 2011’s Creature Dreams. Lee’s beats were innovative, sometimes mixing the textures of Korean instruments with spaceship arpeggios. In 2015, a life-threatening brain disease temporarily robbed her of the ability to hear music, but once she recovered, she locked right back into producing. Then, just as she was ready to drop her latest album, Eternal Reverie, she took on full-time care duties for a beloved friend with terminal cancer, postponing the record’s release and tour until this year.
In recent years, Lee’s once futuristic, lumbering sound has moved toward a smoother strain of EDM-lite that’s more in keeping with ZHU or Elephante than J Dilla, leaning into the soporific side of her early bedroom productions even as she has sharpened her drops for the big stage. Eternal Reverie continues in the same direction, mostly replacing swung rhythms with four-on-the-floor house and disco beats, and conjuring hazy sunsets in swirls of synth and guitar. It’s pleasant, but rarely goes beyond the retail slickness that has characterized Lee’s recent work. Longtime collaborator Gavin Turek gives a tame vocal performance on “Lucky U,” competing with a ubiquitous “Think” break that has surgically removed James Brown’s characteristic yelp. Anderson .Paak proteges GAWD try to kick some life into “Switch It” with sultry triplets, but the restrained pace and telegraphed flow are more Dr. Seuss than Ice Spice. When they ask, “Why you so boring?” they might as well be addressing her programmatic snare rolls.
Ever the omnivorous listener, Lee brings in some global rhythms, though her grooves don’t feel as fresh as they used to. “Corazón / Death by Disco, Pt. 2,” the sequel to a track from her breakout album Midnight Menu, gives a Brazilian disco sample the filter-house treatment. But while older tracks like “Simple Reminder” defamiliarized Brazilian rhythms by infusing bossa nova beats with cosmic textures, “Corazón” merely sprinkles a tamborzão on top. “All In” looks to Afropiano for inspiration, with just enough silverware percs and shakers to give us a hint of Nigeria, but not much else.
Eternal Reverie blends into the background so easily, it’s hard to fathom that this is the same producer who once worked on a noise-ridden anti-nuclear protest song with Otomo Yoshihide and Ryuichi Sakamoto. But any iconoclastic spirit long since gave way to more crowd-pleasing instincts—a tendency that seemingly reached its telos with her recent forays into NFTs and a web3-driven streaming platform. It would be nice to hear a new record that returns to TOKiMONSTA’s more experimental roots.
Lee is more successful when her productions trade narcotic indistinction for Balearic bliss. “Say Tell Me” begins with a stuttering guitar sample, layering wavering synth arpeggios and snares with just enough swing to recall her hip-hop beginnings. About a minute in, what sounds like a gamelan synth straight out of Chrono Trigger adds a bit of textural mystique. And “For You,” a conversation between Lee’s jazzy chords and Kaelin Ellis’ cascading guitar lines, builds and drops with tasteful aplomb, a dedication to her late friend that’s neither frivolous nor shadowed by loss. “For You” shows what Lee is capable of at her best, demonstrating that subtlety doesn’t have to be sedate.
