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Gelli Haha has been dynamite lately getting a glowing review for her debut album in Paste Magazine. As the article describes: "Switcheroo is a dance party of primary colors, Electrix effects, and strange samples (did you hear the bear attack on the back half of “Dynamite”?) that emerged through Abaya’s careful songwriting and a love of twisted disco shared with co-producer Sean Guerin of De Lux. Together, they warp dance and synth-pop with a post-punk gloom that underscores Abaya’s aestheticized and verbalized absurdity."
In addition, she hits a guest selector set on KCRW's Freaks Only.
Cool Band Alert… “a veritable buffet of dancefloor-ready sounds, from bubbly disco rave-ups and gritty underground club bangers, to stretched out slow jams that ache with sincerity.” Bandcamp
“A delightfully deranged party girl whose bleepy vintage synths, sleazy chug and tireless disco keeps things weird in the right way” The Guardian
“Gelli Haha is ready for her close-up. The LA artist’s debut LP is for fans of weird and whimsical pop concoctions, offering 10 tracks that would feel at home in either a contemporary art exhibit or a discotheque.” The Boston Globe
“well worth your attention” KCRW
“… an album of such effervescence it is practically a geyser” The Quietus
Gelli Haha’s stellar debut album Switcheroo is here. A shapeshifter, a sonic acrobat, a performer with one foot in the cosmos and the other in arthouse theatrics, Gelli Haha (pronounced Jelly-Haha) is a space for pure creative chaos that exists somewhere between Studio 54 and Area 51. Gelli’s music thrives on duality: playful but profound, tongue-in-cheek but sincere. Switcheroo is the soundtrack to the Gelliverse, a sensory adventure sphere created by Gelli.
With a shared taste for off-kilter pop and vintage gear, producer Sean Guerin (of De Lux) joined Gelli in turning freshly-formed demos into a high-voltage experiment, abandoning meticulous structure for something freer and more electrifying. Every song on Switcheroo makes use of a myriad of recording toys; wacky analog effects, such as the Eventide Harmonizer, MXR Pitch Transposer, and various Electrix units, fashion an intentionally flawed and strictly silly texture throughout the album. Switcheroo is an exercise in letting go, an inside joke turned theatrical spectacle.
“Acid-Tinged Pop-Art” FLOOD
“well worth your attention” KCRW
Cool Band Alert…”a veritable buffet of dancefloor-ready sounds, from bubbly disco rave-ups and gritty underground club bangers, to stretched out slow jams that ache with sincerity.” Bandcamp
“A delightfully deranged party girl whose bleepy vintage synths, sleazy chug and tireless disco keeps things weird in the right way” The Guardian
“...I can’t imagine anything I want to hear more" The Quietus
Gelli Haha reveals “Normalize”. Influenced by 80s Nigerian soul boogie, her final single ahead of the release of debut full-length album, Switcheroo, delivers mid-tempo synth-funk underneath a raw but smooth vocal. Gelli Haha expresses her desire to be free of hardships in the chorus, singing “I want to fly away”. The video for “Normalize” adapts Gelli Haha’s live stage performance into film, and is the next chapter of the psycho-science experiment that began in the previous single, “Spit,” revealing Gelli has been transformed into a parachute monster. The series was directed by David Gutel.
A shapeshifter, a sonic acrobat, a performer with one foot in the cosmos and the other in arthouse theatrics, Gelli Haha (pronounced Jelly-Haha) is a space for pure creative chaos that exists somewhere between Studio 54 and Area 51. Gelli’s music thrives on duality: playful but profound, tongue-in-cheek but sincere. Switcheroo, is the soundtrack to the Gelliverse, a sensory adventure sphere created by Gelli.
In Gelli Haha’s latest single “Spit” - only S-words are allowed. The track has underground-club grit, with a strong, consistent bass line and strange electronic effects. On “Spit”, participation is encouraged and surrender is required. The accompanying music video, directed by David Gutel, features Gelli strapped to a spiraling operation board as Gelli Kompany scientists conduct a surreal experiment on her.
A shapeshifter, a sonic acrobat, a performer with one foot in the cosmos and the other in arthouse theatrics, Gelli Haha (pronounced Jelly-Haha) is a space for pure creative chaos that exists somewhere between Studio 54 and Area 51. Gelli’s music thrives on duality: playful but profound, tongue-in-cheek but sincere. Her debut album Switcheroo, out next month, is the soundtrack to the Gelliverse, a sensory adventure sphere created by Gelli.
With a shared taste for off-kilter pop and vintage gear, producer Sean Guerin (of De Lux) joined Gelli in turning freshly-formed demos into a high-voltage experiment, abandoning meticulous structure for something freer and more electrifying. Every song on Switcheroo makes use of a myriad of recording toys; wacky analog effects, such as the Eventide Harmonizer, MXR Pitch Transposer, and various Electrix units, fashion an intentionally flawed and strictly silly texture throughout the album. Switcheroo is an exercise in letting go, an inside joke turned theatrical spectacle.
L’Eclair, the electrifying and genre-hopping Swiss ensemble formed and led by Bulgarian brothers Stef and Yavor Lilov, have shared new grooving, cheeky single “RUN.” The song features singer Gelli Haha, whom The Guardian praised as “delightfully weird” last week and FLOOD proclaimed “experimental pop’s newest trickster.” Together, “RUN” strikes the perfect balance between Gelli’s mysterious sonic universe and L’Eclair’s heavy, raw funk. The demo for the song was rooted in Afro-electronic/Nyege Nyege Tapes territory before morphing into the upbeat, confident and crunchy final result.
The song is off L’Eclair’s forthcoming album Cloud Drifter, out June 20.
Meticulously crafted over the last four years, Cloud Drifter marks a departure from L’Eclair’s signature instrumental music, featuring vocals from a wide slate of frequent collaborators – including Pink Siifu, girl named GOLDEN, Gelli Haha, INES and more. Having toured with the likes of The Cinematic Orchestra and WITCH–including writing and recording for the latter’s 2023 and forthcoming 2025 albums–and produced for wide-ranging artists including Varnish La Piscine and Allah-Las member Maston, the Lilov brothers have assembled a vast network of likeminded musicians. Across Cloud Drifter, they keenly curate a cohesive vision incorporating many disparate contributions.
L’Eclair has built an international fanbase thanks to its impressive command of rhythm, dynamics and electro/acoustic alchemy, which has nodded equally to vocal-free titans such as Can and Tortoise, expansive, spacey and blissed-out jams (2021’s Confusions) and more stripped-down, feel-good and genre-jumping destinations (the 2018 debut Polymood). Two live sessions for KEXP have accumulated nearly 900,000 views combined, beaming L’Eclair onto the playlists of adventurous listeners around the world.