Olga Bell – “Randomness”
Moscow-to-Alaska-to-Brooklyn composer Olga Bell has had a long and storied history, first under the name Bell and then with a variety of projects over the years, including with the Dirty Projectors for Swing Lo Magellan. Most recently, she’s been putting out music under her own name — her debut full-length composition Krai, came out in 2014, and she’s following that up with another album project later this year. “Randomness” is the skittering first track we’ve heard from it. Here’s how Bell explains the track in a press release:
I’ve been wanting to write something in the neighborhood of 120 BPM for a really long time. I love working in fast tempos, but 120-ish is such a specific, almost hallowed zone. I didn’t feel like I had license to go there until I processed lots of dance music, practiced a lot of actual dancing and studied the cultural streams that eventually produced the Top 40/MTV dance hits I remember from my childhood (Crystal Waters, Black Box, Robyn S), from my first years in the USA.
Lyrically, ‘Randomness’ is about trying to move more and think less. It’s a funny thing, actively trying to let go, to just exist in a space and turn off your mind and self-consciousness and quotidian concerns. Being in a hot, dark, loud room with a bunch of strangers can be terrifying but it can also be this amazing, restorative meditation. A lot of dance music is about getting lifted, feeling free—maybe that’s the whole reason why humans started dancing in the first place.
Listen below.
Bell’s new full-length will be out later this year via One Little Indian. The “Randomness” single will be available tomorrow.