Lamaze

Description

Originally released in 2010, Lamaze is the debut album by Los Angeles-based artist Geneva Jacuzzi, a pioneer of modern lo-fi pop. This analog 4-track and 8-track recording documents the development of her musical style from 2004 to 2009. The collection has since become a coveted relic among collectors of pop artifacts. The recordings from this period are largely electronic pop songs with minimalist constructions and dancefloor tempos hovering around 100 BPM. This framework is often adorned with melodic ribbons that float freely in space, as well as customized effects and noises. Geneva plays with formats including instrumentals and various types of interludes – dialogues, speeches, cheerleader encouragement, unintelligible chatter, and other onomatopoeia. Geneva Jacuzzi's sound, style, and playing vary considerably, yet they complement each other in the overall view. Her primary legacy is rooted in traditional stage performances – classical Greek, Weimar Berlin, Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, French mime comedy, Klaus Nomi, Nina Hagen, and Liquid Sky. The main themes revolve around fantasies of surreal landscapes, Freudian/Jungian dream cosmologies, the ecstasy and anguish of dissociation, and dramas in the astral realms. Coming from the shores of coastal neighborhoods bordering the last wild beaches of San Diego County, Geneva arrived in Los Angeles in 2001. It was there that her art truly took shape while she supported herself as a Hollywood makeup artist, having strange encounters with celebrities like Robert Blake and Britney Spears. She later formed Bubonic Plague with members of The Warlocks and The Centimeters, a minimal-sounding death-disco synthwave band. She then found her way into the Echo Park art scene, centered around the Tiny Creatures gallery. A music scene developed around the new Human Ear Music label, by Jason Grier of Supercreep, which would release seminal recordings by Geneva, Ariel Pink, Holy Shit, John Maus, Julia Holter, Gary Wilson, Nite Jewel, and the Softboiled Eggies. The starting point for a new American sound. She then pushed the boundaries of her art with the live piece Dark Ages, which she toured for four years. Lamaze is essentially a collection of demos, but it was among these early lo-fi pop recordings that the lexicon of new musical frontiers – chillwave, bedroom pop, witch house, vaporwave – was formed. The sound of a future that has become today.