SOPHIE

Beneath the moniker SOPHIE, reclusive London-based musician Samuel Long produced an enormous, fizzy splash around the underground dance-pop picture through the mid-2010s with some singles that contorted components of giddy Eurodance, Japanese and Korean pop, and experimental audio design into blindingly neon-colored pop-art gems. Frequently from the similar-minded Personal computer Music label, SOPHIE’s advanced, hyperkinetic productions typically feature high-pitched feminine vocals, sugary synthesizer textures, and beats sketching from underground dance music designs such as for example U.K. garage area as well mainly because mainstream pop and hip-hop. Rather than utilizing examples, he constructs his inventive songs from waveforms, creating bizarre sounds which resemble bubbling drinking water, inflating balloons, rubber bands, and additional nonmusical sounds, increasing the surrealist, blatantly artificial quality of his music. Originally hailing from Scotland, Samuel Long relocated to London and performed in a music group called Motherland, including performers Matthew Lutz-Kinoy and Marcella Dvsi. Long obtained a Dutch brief film entitled Dear Mr/Mrs in 2011. After making tracks for the few years and creating a hype among underground dance music DJs, SOPHIE’s debut one “Nothing More to state” premiered by U.K. home label Huntleys & Palmers in early 2013. Second one “Bipp” (supported with B-side “Elle”) quickly implemented in the Glasgow-based Quantities label, as well as the bouncy, catchy tune was an instantaneous critical success, showing up on many end-of-year one polls. The notoriously media-shy manufacturer began producing live appearances, frequently wearing a cover up to conceal his identification. He collaborated with Japanese pop feeling Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in 2014. Third SOPHIE one “Lemonade”/”Hard” made an appearance on Quantities in August of this year; both music schizophrenically flitted between bubblegum pop hooks and even more aggressive components, and both became large critical successes aswell. Also in August of 2014, “Hey QT,” the debut one by QT (American dance-pop musician Hayden Dunham) made an appearance on XL; the monitor was co-produced by SOPHIE and Computer Music founder A. G. Make. More available and straightforward compared to the majority of Computer Music’s esoteric pop mutations, “Hey QT” was another achievement, although much like every one of the material from the label, reactions had been mixed, as much listeners believed the tune was exceedingly saccharine. SOPHIE spent a lot of 2015 collaborating with various other performers, including Charli XCX, Le1f, and Namie Amuro. Along with Diplo, SOPHIE co-produced Madonna’s one “Bitch I’m Madonna,” which also highlighted rapper Nicki Minaj. In July of 2015, “Lemonade,” itself the aural exact carbon copy of a tangy, sugary soda, was appropriately found in a McDonald’s industrial for the drink. The next November, the four songs from SOPHIE’s earlier singles for Figures had been put together onto the artist’s debut recording Item, along with four fresh songs which were also released as dual A-sides.