Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt - Lucy & Aaron

STUCK INSIDE, A KEPT HOUSEWIFE STEWS

In the understated, yet entirely competitive world of Experimental music, it's rare for a total anomaly to manifest. Especially in the modern era, one characterized by convenience in software and an appreciation for the unorthodox. Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt, in their own respective ways, are no strangers to this world. The former, infatuated with grotesque, confrontational Noise techniques. The latter, a beautiful presence haunted by echoes of Lynchian dismay. What Lucy & Aaron accomplishes though defies both. The colorful, 1950's revisionist cover paints in bold, sunset hues. The faces, warped and molded together, parallel the collaboration admirably. Smiles abound, discomfort emerges within the uncanny valley. Like a twisted, alternate reality of a recent past imbued with farcical facades. A kept housewife, proper and perfect, curbs the rising storm within.

While Dilloway's irritating loops feel, more often than not, like a necessary evil ('Bordeándola,' 'Voyria'), the fractured latency and siphoned belching of Dalt steals the show. The mixture is fine and satisfactory, straying from Electroacoustic, ASMR-lite mutilations ('Tender Cuts,' 'Both Blue Moons,' 'Tense Cuts') to deconstructed, hallucinatory Pop ('Demands Of Ordinary Devotion,' 'Niles Baroque,' 'The Blob'). In each instance, Dalt and Dilloway's consolidation shines. On the weirder tracks, Dalt's vocals prick the earlobe, snaking under the skin, coiling at the sight of sunlight. It's a fascinating technique that results in an oddly-satisfying tuning for the ear. And this, coming from someone who despises ASMR. For the relatively accessible ones, vinyl-stuck loops allow Dalt to express herself candidly. Only 'Demands Of Ordinary Devotion' defies expectation, with startlingly-creative performances by both artists. Beautiful yet disturbing, entertaining yet off-putting. Lucy & Aaron's stunner masterfully weaves music's fighting antitheses; Pop and experimentation.