Leyode

A collaboration between Yusuke Hama and vocalist Laurel Wells, Leyode pairs sampled, chopped up and re-sampled vocals with quirky but wholly original arrangements originally founded on a French new wave film theme. The result in Fascinating Tininess is undeniably smart and in an understated fashion, offers a new electronica netherworld where trumpet solos pop out of nowhere, strings breezily fly by and voice and cello artfully meet and glide through. Mixed with their playful, slaphappy beats and loose jazz influences, Leyode’s resulting sound reveals a certain indefinable pop brilliance nested in the album’s cinematic overtones, as well as a hip-hop and broken beat underbelly. Tracks such as "Clementine,” "Dominque” and "Eilene’s” scenic beats, vocal-inspired atmospherics and subtly layered melodies illustrate some of the freshest fusion out there, and by album’s end, Leyode’s initial quirky charm and clever beats reveal themselves to be a wholly inspired and original blessing on the new electronica front.