Andrea Balency's "Walls" EP out on June 23
EP release: debut EP ‘Walls’, co-produced by Airhead
Release date: 23 June
Label: Bataille Music
Listen on: official Andrea Balency site
A 22-year-old part-Mexican, part-French digital native world citizen (now living in Paris, but previously in NY, Mexico DF, London and Buenos Aires), Andrea Balency was spotted in 2010 as one of the most promising and exciting musical presences in the Mexican art-rock scene and singled out by James Blake (R&S, Universal), Inc. (4AD), Au Revoir Simone (Moshi Moshi) and Mount Kimbie (Warp), among others, as a supporting act. In April 2013 she was chosen by The Cure to open the closing gig of their worldwide tour in the main Mexico DF stadium “Foro Sol” for 50,000 people.
She played SXSW and Sonar before settling in Paris to start working on a new EP, WALLS, an eclectic mix of elegant hooks and soul-tinged indie electronica to be released on the 23rd of June 2014.
Having recently collaborated with avant-garde US and UK-based producers like Nick Hook & Los Angeles electro wunderkind Salva, she secretly supplied lead vocals on James Blake’s collaborator Airhead’s critically acclaimed single “Autumn”. Following a standout collaboration with New York based rapper Kilo Kish and with former Young Turks act We Are Shining’s new track co-written by FKA Twigs due to be released, Andrea sheds her high-brow classical piano training, blue-eyed English soul and both French and South American folk inspirations to plunge into washes of expansive electronica and dreamy, suggestive vocal textures in her solo project.
“You’ve Never Been Alone”, the first single from the WALLS EP, was co-produced by Rob McAndrews aka Airhead, recently acclaimed by Pitchfork for his debut album “For Years” (R&S, 2013), and mixed by the stellar French sound engineer Stephane “Alf” Briat (Air, Phoenix, Sebastien Tellier, Francoise Hardy, etc.). The song gives an original, continental answer to the UK based “twisted R&B-sung-by-cutely-breathy females scene” (The Guardian) that has been much-trumpeted lately. With its interrupted, intricately detailed and effects-washed sound, “You’ve Never Been Alone” is an idiosyncratic yet fiercely melodic, groove-based pop hit. Throughout her EP, Andrea explores relationships, restlessness and dislocation, using a smorgasbord of sounds to dig down into the heart of her nomadic upbringing.
File Andrea’s ethereal deep soul dubstep sounds and her fairy-like unique voice next to AlunaGeorge, FKA Twigs, Little Dragon, The XX & SBTRKT and you will not regret it. Currently writing her first album, which will feature a collaboration with Mount Kimbie, Andrea Balency is a beautiful singer you don’t want to mess with. It’s time to let you go.
Reaction
“Here’s a new name for you, Andrea Baleeency, franco-mexican, You’ve Never Been Alone” – Gilles Peterson, BBC 6Music (Single Premiered on his 6Music Worldwide show, May, 2014)
“Exquisite new single. Suitable for majestic casual lovers and dance floor demons. It sounds a bit like a nouveau electronica version of CocoRosie, with that light voice staggering against broken beats. Stunned from first listen.” – Indie Shuffle
‘Sounds incredible.’ – Red Bull Music Academy