LSDXOXO - DOGMA (2024) [Hi-Res]

On their debut LP, US-Berlin dance catalyst LSDXOXO takes cues from working with Beyoncé and Lady Gaga for a pop-toned album that swaps out club pressure for dembow, rap and beatdown productions tailored to their voice.

Cocking a snook at perceptions of pop as low brow, the co-founder of legendary club GHE20GOTH1K, and more recently Floorgasm, dovetails with poptimist trends for a debut album riddled with indie-pop and R&B urges, but still driven below the belt by steady, sturdy grooves. At 15 years up to the hilt in their thing, ‘Dogma’ marks out their ambition thru 10 songs (plus interlude) splayed out like a mixtape, complete with seamless segues, in the flow from Yves Tumor-adjacent, autotuned indie-pop x reggaeton on ‘4LUVN’, thru the haldstepping breaks that propel their Future-like cadence on ’Superstar.’

They keep everything nipped and tucked to a pop brief, variously drawling catty bars on the beatdown house sleaze of ‘Brand New’, rolling to the Yung Lean-like cloudrap of ‘Girls Girls Girls’, and roping in Rochelle Jordan for the centrepiece of squashed, computerised, contemporary soul in ‘Blinded’. They register more uptempo sort of brio in the butterfly stepper ‘Witching Hour’, a deep-ish house hymn ‘Black Light’, and percolated drums of ‘Bloodlust’, but it’s really all about the off-peak times, rather than what you may have come to expect from their run of bucking 12”s and fiery DJ sets.

Tracklist:
1-1. LSDXOXO - REPEAT (INTERLUDE) (01:51)
1-2. LSDXOXO - 4LUVN (02:14)
1-3. LSDXOXO - BRAND NEW (02:30)
1-4. LSDXOXO - GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS (03:14)
1-5. LSDXOXO - GHOST (03:14)
1-6. LSDXOXO, Rochelle Jordan - BLINDED (FEAT. ROCHELLE JORDAN) (02:30)
1-7. LSDXOXO - WITCHING HOUR (02:14)
1-8. LSDXOXO - BLACK LIGHT (03:13)
1-9. LSDXOXO - WASTELAND (03:25)
1-10. LSDXOXO - BLOODLUST (03:18)
1-11. LSDXOXO - SUPERSTAR (02:47)