Recording for Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label, Salami Rose Joe Louis (Lindsay Olsen) has blazed a distinctive trail in that fertile sector of California's underground where electronic music and jazz converge. On early releases by this multi-instrumentalist and producerâsuch as 2019's Zdenka 2080âOlsen sings in a hushed, dulcet manner over sparse, melodious electronic music that wears its jazz inflections gracefully. Faint echoes of '90s and '00s introspective, minimalist IDM (intelligent dance music, if you don't know) acts such as MĂşm insinuate themselves, too. It's ultimately dream pop, but not in the cloying way manifested by the genre's try-hards.
With 2023's Akousmatikous and this year's collab with Flanafi, Sarah, SRJL's rhythms get jazzier and the instrumentation fuller, with help from Soccer96 and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, among others. The songs are more kinetic while the vocals retain their breathy, Julee Cruise-like sweetness. The music's levitational feel and smooth propulsion belie lyrics about catastrophic ecological degradation and the dangers of propaganda/disinformation. Enchanting listeners through understatement and mutedly sparkling tones, Olsen offers the most pleasant dystopian sci-fi soundtracks extant. For this show at Madame Lou's tonight, she'll be joined by guitarist Flanafi, bassist Tone Whitfield, and drummer Luke Titusâmost of whom played on the exceptional new Salami Live at 2131 North Kacey Street EP.
Salami Rose Joe Louis plays Madame Lou's Monday, Nov 11, 7:30 pm, $21, 21+.