- Positive rave energy.
- The apparent overflow of joy on this new 12-inch from Stellar OM Source seems about right. Christelle Gualdi had spent recent years navigating a maelstrom of personal challenges, which she spoke about with Gabriel Szatan in a recent profile, that made it seem her music career would be left permanently on ice. That she eventually decided to refocus fully on music is, based on the strength of this EP, a seriously big win for anyone interested in what she does. I See Through You is, for my money, the most immediate—and immediately satisfying—music she's ever written. It's essentially been in the pipeline for a few years, the material being developed within the sporadic live shows Gualdi played, and it sounds like the work of someone processing a bevy of emotion through the cathartic release of rave-ready energy.
It's been six years since the excellent Joy One Mile album, and I still can't quite pinpoint the exact quality that makes Gualdi's music distinctive. Words like "full" and "rich" come to mind... but that doesn't quite nail it. On this new one, for example, we're roughly in the zone of classic dance music templates, but what's here is somehow skewed and somewhat removed from almost everything that's come before it. So on one level, "Night Alone" is an anthemic house track, "Wild Palms" is groovy garage, "Lost Codes" is chunky electro and "White Echoes" is a sturdy mix of deep- and acid house. But then there's the lens through which Gualdi manifests these styles. She creates enveloping environments, given shape by the rush of live performance, that risk aural overload but sound thrilling for it.
TracklistA1 Night Alone
A2 Lost Codes
B1 White Echoes
B2 Wild Palms