Somewhere on the spectrum between complete chaos and blissful bubblegum pop you’ll find Laura Les, aka osno1. Over the past couple of years, the Chicago-based producer has remained largely an enigma in the experimental electronic music scene, working in her own sonic world of colorful, hyper-distorted landscapes.
This week, Les decided to give listeners something to get through the hot mess that is summer ’18 with an EP aptly titled “BIG SUMMER JAMS 2018”. She puts your average pop song on acid, splattering the mix with heavy synths and explosive percussion loud enough to make you forget whatever was on your mind upon hitting play. Everything feels slightly off-kilter in Les’ world, yet the melodies feel familiar, blending influences from emo, trap, and pop to craft party-ready anthems. Accompanying her own high-pitched, heavily auto-tuned vocals, Les puts on a roster of other fresh faces who tend to push genre boundaries, including Lil West and Dylan Brady. Altogether, Les delivers six songs that you can’t help but dance to but also will leave you feeling slightly confused—a formal invitation inside her chaotic mind.