Lushloss - Asking/Bearing (2017)

Lushloss is the alias of Seattle's Olive Jun, a 25 year-old Korean-American trans woman that creates intimate, thrilling, expansive electronic-pop that defies easy categorization. While Seattle temporarily served as home-base in her early 20s, she's a native of Richmond, VA, and her latest re-location from the East Coast to the Pacific Northwest also brings news of her debut album 'Asking/Bearing,' due out June 16th on Seattle's Hush Hush Records. Her work has previously been featured on Hush Hush's inaugural 'Presents' compilation as well as a remix contribution for Japanese artist dznt's 2015 mini-album on Hush Hush. Those songs provided a glimpse into Lushloss' sound, yet 'Asking/Bearing' signals a bold maturation, ushering in her most fully realized work.

'Asking/Bearing' is a gathering of two distinct sides, both reflecting Lushloss' amorphous sound. The first half of the album, aka 'Asking,' finds Lushloss examining her shifting relationship within her family, as each song on this side is inter-stitched with excerpts from a Skype conversation between Olive and her mother in Korea. Drawing inspiration and insight from this dialogue that implicitly delves into the weighty topics of maternity, life, death, inter-generational traumas, and familial relationships, the 7 tracks on 'Asking' showcase Olive tackling an electronic-accented pop sound from a singer/songwriter angle that is emotional, personal, and gentle. Her striking lyrics, wistful melodies, and fragile vocals are digitally altered into exciting, glitch-embracing terrain, while her vocals are layered over sparse backdrops featuring acoustic guitar and piano, as well as surprisingly crispy, glistening, and distorted beats. Undoubtedly her most soul-baring music to date, 'Asking' is a bold showcase of Lushloss growing alongside her changing landscape, and finding her own unique voice.

The album's latter half, aka 'Bearing,' finds Lushloss proudly wearing her producer's cap as she fuses her love for instrumental hip-hop and intricately-arranged electronic production for an immaculately-crafted journey through warm and tender beats. Ethereal, wordless vocals intermittently drift over the top, elsewhere spoken-word samples drift into the enveloping haze, yet its Lushloss' production talents and arrangement skills that shine brightly throughout. Although it closes out the album, the material on 'Bearing' was written well before 'Asking,' and was originally slated to be Lushloss' debut album. That initial plan was put on hold after Olive began exploring a more personal style that ultimately yielded the more direct material of 'Asking,' which was written more recently over an intense 2-week period. With 'Bearing' now presented as the album's "b-sides" and experienced together alongside 'Asking,' this official debut full-length album from Lushloss introduces a powerful and refreshing new voice in Seattle's music community, and an artist confidently blurring the lines between

Tracklist:

01. Lushloss - St Marco
02. Lushloss - Sisters
03. Lushloss - Sheet
04. Lushloss - Gutter
05. Lushloss - Clark, WA
06. Lushloss - Amethyst
07. Lushloss - Shame
08. Lushloss - Hold uu
09. Lushloss - Yana (interlude)
10. Lushloss - Old Oak
11. Lushloss - Clearing
12. Lushloss - Blame
13. Lushloss - Wanting
14. Lushloss - Gymnasium