Some summer songs beg to match their environment—hot, sticky layers that build into a sweltering rainforest. But, as a desert person (it’s a dry heat), I’ve always searched for June/July jams that act as aural AC.
From its cover art alone (yes yes, I do judge albums by their covers), my Tucson feelers could sense that Lone’s new record, Levitate, would be the musical mister I so desperately need this summer. The glossy, hazy design looks like Monet dabbing his canvas with car wash runoff. “Triple Helix”, the fifth track off the album, fits these visuals beautifully. The song opens with tame snare snaps and a sheen haze of water droplet notes; it’s refreshing and nostalgic like ice cream truck rocket pops. Now would be an appropriate time to mention, however, that Levitate is the UK producer’s ode to breakbeats and jungle (see 0:50). The synths accelerate to a sprint, that addictive beat kicks in, and we’re launched down the water tube. It’s equal parts relentless and weightless, spiraling in endless loops (is a triple helix a real biological structure? Help me out Milki…) but never losing momentum thanks to an insistent, hedonistic chiming on the offbeat. It’s the rush of childhood summers, of cannon balls, of sunscreen globs, of KoolAid sugar highs, of—
You shake the water drops off your hair. You open your eyes. The wind makes you shiver, and your skin prickles into goose bumps. You taste bleachy chlorine residue on your lips. Then, as since summers immemorial, you run back up, take a breath, and throw yourself into the blue bliss below.
