New York City’s Lulu Lewis features Dylan Hundley on vocals and Pablo Martin on instruments. Along with their debut album Genuine Psychic from 2019, they have a handful of EPs and singles, most recently “Dyscopia,” released in early March, a teaser of the title-track from their upcoming album, and now its remix by the Beat Junkies’ DJ Rhettmatic and Martin hitting Bandcamp today. The album cut deepens the decidedly early ’80s musical thrust of Lulu Lewis by exploring styles beyond the standard post-punky new wave, and then the remix doubles down like it’s blasting from a boombox cradled by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Nice!
It’s possible to overstate the ’80s approach of Lulu Lewis, in part because the duo’s activity includes a digital EP of cover songs, specifically Roxy Music’s “In Every Dream Home a Heartache,” John Cale’s “Helen of Troy,” and Funkadelic’s “I’ll Bet You,” plus a standalone version of Cale’s “Gun” that came out back in February.
All ’70s tunes, ya dig? Well, “I’ll Bet You” was released as a single in late ’69, but my point stands. Lulu Lewis aren’t a coldly calculated experience easily lumped into the post punk or techno pop genres, a reality that’s aptly illustrated by the art-funky groove and jangling guitar in the album version of “Dyscopia,” and then further driven home by how its R&B-tinged radio pop (complete with Hundley’s breathy vox) gets rejiggered and ramped up with big beats, an influx of scratching, and a general electro atmosphere in this fresh remix.
Of course, the song and this reassembling aren’t without precedent (namely Blondie), but it’s an impulse that hasn’t been done to death, in part because it requires a measure of good taste in the execution. Lulu Lewis have it. Get ready for that LP this autumn.
