Juno Plus Podcast 13: Light Asylum

This week’s podcast sees a welcome deviation from the house straight and techno narrow with a selection from the newly crowned Mexican Summer act Light Asylum.

It’s hard to speak about the band without starting with Shannon Funchess’ voice, a towering presence we were first made fully aware of when lending “Dancing In Slow Motion” by Teengirl Fantasy an enviable sense of fragile emotion. Dig deeper and Shannon has lent this vocal quality to a number of other bands with a stint in arch NYC punk funk act !!! to her name as well as contributing to “In Your Line”, one of the standout tracks from Telepathe’s underrated debut album Dance Mother.

It was during this period that the ideas behind Light Asylum began to form, though it was the arrival of Bruno Coviello in early 2009 where the vision became more concise and people started to take notice. Given the musical references that formulate the Light Asylum sound – described by Funchess herself as music for apocalyptic times – deviating between fluid synth pop, industrial dance and sublime future balladry, it’s perhaps the most bizarre injustice that the duo remained in label-less limbo since they emerged with the bittersweet jam A Certain Person last summer. It’s even more puzzling when you consider they reside in New York City, something most bands need only mention before having several record contract offers wafted in front of their noses.

A collective hooray was uttered when news broke of Light Asylum signing with Mexican Summer, with the label releasing proper the band’s In Tension EP ahead of Light Asylum holing up in a Berlin studio to work on a much anticipated debut album. Shannon sat down recently to put together this sixty minute selection that breezes through the band’s contemporaries such as the aforementioned Telepathe, label mates Ford & Lopatin and Austra, as well as touching on classic electrofunk and possibly the only version of Fischerspooner’s “Emerge” that we can stomach.

(This mix has now been archived. You can still stream it via the Mixcloud player above)

Length: 1:01:40

Tracklisting:

1. Telepathe – Throw This Away
2. Aleem – Release Yourself
3. Spank Rock – Tell What It Looks Like (Todd Edwards Remix)
4. Fischerspooner – Emerge (DFA Version)
5. Khan – Ride Me (Stereogamous Remount)
6. Tom Tom Club – Genius of Love (The Pink Tones)
7. Jeffrey Jerusalem – Disco Drymouth
8. Beat Connection – In the Water
9. Cut Copy – Far Away (Hercules and Love Affair)
10. Lykke Li – I Follow Rivers (Dave Sitek Remix)
11. Austra – Lose It (Diamond Rings Remix)
12. Caribou – Leave House
13. Ford & Lopatin – World of Regret