Altered Zones

A brilliant vid by Leaving Records co-founder Jesselisa Moretti crowns this Julia Holter song, which begins with the initials "TTMYAOA" and a slew of '70s Japanese aesthetics, including a rising sun, a multicolor, kabuki-faced Holter, and percussive instrumentation. Despite the expanding ink blots, silhouettes, and superimposed colors, nothing about the song or the vid seems spontaneous. The esoteric and meticulous sample manipulations jibe with our knowledge that the Los Angeles composer turns to well-defined imagery as inspiration for her works. The heavy beat and soft vocals make for a sound that is demanding and capricious, evoking the elements of Greek tragedy that make her new LP so appropriately named. --Coco Zoabi, International Tapes