There are only 13 minutes of music on Steve Lacy’s debut project, but that’s enough time for him to make a serious impression. Over the course of six tracks that sparkle with classic Southern California funk and soul, the producer, just barely out of high school, offers up a dazzling number of musical ideas. Steve Lacy’s Demo is all the more remarkable for the fact that most of the record was produced on an iPhone.
Lacy, 18, joined his school’s jazz band in ninth grade, where he met Jameel Bruner, the younger brother of superstar bassist, Thundercat. When Bruner was recruited to play keyboards on the Internet’s third album, Ego Death, he invited Lacy to join the group in the studio. The band must have been impressed: Lacy ended up earning himself individual production credits on six of the album’s 12 tracks and an executive producer credit, becoming a full-on member. The album was a breakthrough success for the Internet, occasioning rave reviews, winning the group a Grammy nomination, and reminding the world again that its young members—Syd, Matt Martians, and now Lacy—had massive potential.
All three have released solo projects in early 2017. Lacy has classified Demo as a “song series” rather than an album or EP, a modesty belied by the fact that he has called the songs “perfect.” He’s not far off—the music here is startlingly mature, full of dimension and depth, as if Lacy were accompanied by a full band rather than doing everything, right down to the mixing, by his lonesome. The opening song, “Looks,” kicks off with drums, adventurous bass, a wobbling synth, and gorgeous falsetto harmonies that lead in to the solitary verse. All those layers are in service of a song that’s, of all things, a rejection of superficiality. “What if I got with you and turned out to be a total dick,” Lacy cautions. “Would you be happy ’bout that?” The song is all too brief—it melts in your mouth before two minutes are up.
Talented musicians often lean on their chops, noodling at their instruments at the expense of tight songcraft. If anything, Lacy has almost the opposite problem: Many of the outstanding musical moments here feel teased rather than fulfilled. The verse that opens “Ryd” could easily become a hook anchoring a full song—instead, it’s merely a bookend, a sliver of something great. But Lacy is so multitalented in his vocal range and his creative percussion (check the drums on “Haterlovin”), in his ability to wring soulfulness out of guitar and bass alike, that it’s hard to isolate one single element at which he most excels.
“Dark Red” is the clear standout, the only song in which each part lingers for the appropriate amount of time. The swirling melodies on the chorus float atop the beat as a melodic counterpoint, an effect Lacy has said was influenced by David Longstreth’s work with Dirty Projectors. And the aching quality of the music, complemented by the Motown harmonies that round out its back half, matches the song’s theme, a plea lobbed at a partner who’s beginning to turn away.
Despite its brevity, Demo is reminiscent of another auspicious debut, one that emerged more than 15 years ago. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo had already made their mark as producers with the Neptunes, but their first album in the band NERD, In Search Of…, was stronger and stranger than anything they had come up with before. And as its songs became cult classics, In Search Of... announced Pharrell as someone who could star in front of the camera, not just behind the boards. Steve Lacy’s Demo evokes that record in its charisma and musical ability. Given that it’s not even 15 minutes, the record can’t be said to be anything more than a particularly tasty appetizer. But it’s hard to imagine the listener who wouldn’t yearn for the next course.
