Nite Jewel

Occupying the twilit space between Ariel Pink s lo-fi avant pop and the codeine beats of Chromatics, Nite Jewel the performing moniker of California native Ramona Gonzalez brings a gloriously original new slant to the golden age of disco with Good Evening , her debut record. Although still a student at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles (coincidentally the alma mater of one Barack Obama), Gonzalez has been making music on an 8-track for a number of years now, slowly evolving from ambient pieces and sound and video installation art to her gradually writing proper songs with Cole M. Grieff-Neill, of Haunted Graffiti, and selling self-produced demo CDR s at shows. Eventually, her music an evocative, bedroom studio take on dancefloor greats like Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam and Debbie Deb caught the ears of one Johnny Jewel, head honcho of the venerated Italians Do It Better, who released her debut single What Did He Say on his label last year. The easy metaphorical place to go with Good Evening is memory the 10 songs here have the dusty, cobwebbed quality of your older cousin s 12 collection, but the lo-fi haze signifies more than an easy nostalgia it resonates with a certain kind of universal L.A. gloom, ringed in smog, which seems to echo throughout the entire album, and ultimately ground it in the present. However, the music is anything but cold and detached it vibrates with warmth, from the low hum of tape hiss to the way Gonzalez ethereal vocals and humid analogue synths tips its hat to past greats like Arthur Russell, Sa-Fire and even Roxy Music. Ultimately, for what can be ostensibly termed dance music, Good Evening is a delicate, intimate affair, a beautifully sustained exercise in mood and tension, and far more precious and intriguing a record than most others at the moment.