Bleep

Marie Davidson’s Ninja Tune debut, Working Class Woman offers a vividly important document that expresses both her state of mind and acts as a comment on the night after night, club culture creating an all cut to a pitch-perfect new beat/EBM-techno workout…

Building on the dancefloor-minded trajectory of her breakthrough LP ‘Adieux Au Dancefloor’, released via Veronica Vasicka's Cititrax imprint circa 2016, ‘Working Class Woman’ is the sound of Marie Davidson proving that she can roll acidic new beat basslines and sleek, sexdrops tekno like no one else. Lace it with her sharp-edged vox and you have one of 2018’s strongest contenders.

From the opening gambit of 'Your Biggest Fan', we are instantly sped forward into the dystopian post-party world of the slowly evacuating nightclub. The atmosphere oddly distorted by hours of hammering drums leaves an almost slow-motion vision, to which Marie's vocals split open an ever-circling closer ripple of neon synth tones. Turning the euphoric experience of a busy club show on its head, this disorientating approach to the lesser explored moments of DJ culture perfectly sums up Marie Davidson’s mission for self-expression within the often glamorised, yet rarely discussed stresses and strains of the nightlife music that is her craft. The disorientation is continued on tracks like 'The Psychologist', with its acid b-line making moves toward moody angled techno, while 'Lara' could be the scene crossover acid smash and grab hit that wouldn't sound out of place on a vintage Stay Up Forever plate.

Straight off the back of the album’s darker, introspective moments, we are sped straight past the door queue and into 'Work It'. By far one of album's number one earworms, its robotic hooks and jacking groove locked the sharp-edged lines such as "You wanna know how I get away with everything? I work, all the f*cking time”. Meanwhile, this exhilarating forward motion continues on sure shot hit 'So Right', a perfect twilight house number that is destined to lift you up just that last little bit when reaching for the lasers. Finally, the comedown rush sideways swerve into ambient dream-pop arrives on the digitized closer 'La chambre intérieure' letting us loose into the night, a buzz with bliss.

This super strong selection is sure to take pride of place within the collections and listening habits of anyone into DFA, Regis, Not Waving (with whom she recently collaborated), SOPHIE and GAIKA. Working Class Woman reshapes Marie Davidson's sharp-edged Italo Disco, proto-industrial and electro influences into new modes of cyberpunk coldwave control, proof that looking inward can project a more expansive vision out into the world…