Music For Dreams’ latest signing is Julie Pavon. Label founder Kenneth Bager has likened Julie’s electric live performances to those of Grace Jones. Listening to the recorded music I’m reminded of the palpable passion of Florence Welch and Isabella ”The Machine” Summers, maybe, a little of Miriam The Believer as well. I’m definitely picturing a fiery force of nature. 

Julie’s debut release is a 6-track E.P. The set takes its title from the opening song, Watch Her Dance, which is, honestly, super smart. Here, Julie’s lyrics seem to simultaneously detail both a dancer’s need to escape inside the dance, and an onlooking voyeur’s desires and fantasies. The musical accompaniment, co-produced with Uffe Christensen, jumps between juxtaposed treated, twisted chimes and synthetic string rave riffs. This mix making for an extremely powerful piece of pop. Bouquet Of Flowers is minimal house manufactured from angular acoustic guitar loops. On Herd Animals a summery strum sits astride a garage-y 4 / 4. In contrast, Hey Sister is a slice of slightly sinister folk. Concerned with the sun and the moon, it invokes a sense of magick, similar, say, to Buffy Sainte-Marie’s seminal, truly strange, Illuminations. Subterranean sound effects adding to the tune’s mystical mood.  

Don’t Call Me Out is another diamond. A wonderfully wonky disco-not-disco showcase for Julie’s eccentric, ecstatic kind of contralto, that recalls Arthur Russell, Dinosaur L, and Loose Joints. In its extended version, this, by rights, should to be massive. The track that I’m currently hooked on, however, is High. Despite its euphoric backing, of Hoover bass and tribal techno thumping, stadium / festival trance, there’s something very real, and raw, about Julie’s delivery, something that draws on a darkness. Summoning a suggestion of why some of us seek out substances, searching for a place to hide. It’s really quite incredible how she manages to convey such a complex combination of emotions with such simple lyrics (or perhaps it’s just my imagination, and own narcissistic need to project, working overtime).

“I wish you’d only see me when I’m high.”

Julie Pavon’s wonderful Watch Her Dance is out now on Music For Dreams.