Kristin Kontrol – X-Communicate

Sometimes you have to rip it up and start again.

It was a tough call for Dee Dee. Dum Dum Girls was her guise for the better part of a decade, an outlet through which she had crafted an instantly identifiable body of work. Demos made in a studio apartment on a nylon string guitar and posted on to a Myspace page pricked the ears of various labels including Sub Pop who the band signed with. From there, Dee Dee assembled her group of badass, black-clad cadets and toured the world. Over the course of three albums, four EPs, and a bold brace of singles, Dum Dum Girls morphed from the girl-group-gone-bad moves of debut album ‘I Will Be‘ (2010), to the plush noir-pop of 2014’s ‘Too True‘, with its motorik beats and svelte harmonies; a dark heart burning bright.

But sometimes the project you pour your soul into ends up hemming you in. As her music evolved, Dee Dee found that she would be forever refracted through the prism of Dum Dum Girls’ early work: retro-leaning female harmonies, a backdrop of lo-fi, fuzzed-up guitars.

At the top of 2015, she decided to shed her skin, ditching Dee Dee for her real name, Kristin, and adding Kontrol. It was a spontaneous idea – but it resonated with her.  As Karen O once counseled her, it may be a leap into the unknown, but little risk means little reward.

Tracks:

1. Show Me
2. White Street
3. (Don’t) Wannabe
4. X-Communicate
5. Skin Shed
6. Drive the Night
7. What Is Love
8. Face 2 Face
9. Going Thru the Motions
10. Smoke Rings