Bleep

Lifetime, the debut LP from Klein, is the sort of grand and ambitious statement that she has been threatening for a couple of years now. This is a set of dense and interlinked sonic vignettes from the London-based sound artist, one that is by turns abrasive, beautiful, mesmerising and hostile.

While the tracks of Lifetime often flow into one another, this does not mean that the record allows the listener to settle. Rather, what Klein does here is more akin to how Dean Blunt structures his albums - the onward rush of tracks can be disorienting, and strange sounds often come in to destabilise prettier passages. See, for instance, how ‘Silent’ flits abruptly between Sakamoto-esque piano sections, drumline rhythms and screeching noise.

As was the case on some of her previous releases, Klein continues to use choirs/massed vocals in unique ways here. In the hands of a less adventurous artist tracks like ‘Camelot Is Coming’ and ‘We Are Almost There’ would be allowed to coast on their lush close harmonies. However, Klein pulls them in typically unexpected directions, with the production on the former giving it an air of ghostly menace while there is a slight air of uncanniness about ‘We Are Almost There’.

Indeed, more so than any genre tag, ‘the uncanny’ is the key term with regards to Lifetime. These tracks exist in liminal spaces - between harmony and dissonance, language and gibberish, the discernable experiments of artists like Rrose and Holly Herndon and the very fringes of the avant-garde.

Klein’s debut LP Lifetime keeps you guessing from start to finish.