For the past past few years, the dance world has primarily known Lee Foss under the guise of globe-trotting house DJ, label owner at Hot Creations, and constant collaborator behind various supergroups like Hot Natured and Pleasure State. In 2017, however, Foss has turned his full attention to his solo career, releasing his debut artist album Alchemy.

Alchemy has been a long-time coming. While more than a year-and-a-half in the making, it’s ultimately a culmination of Lee’s artistic growth over the years, tracing back to the early days of 2009 and 2010 when Foss first made his break on tastemaker imprints like Culprit ad Wolf + Lamb Records. As such, the album reads like a retrospective, highlighting many of Lee’s most seminal influences, like disco, funk, and soul.

 

Alchemy is a bit anachronistic. While temporally planted in 2017, it feels as though it could have been released three to four decades prior. With nods to Italo disco, acid, and techno, the album bears a rugged, retro sensibility, highlighted most notably in its gritty analog synth work and dexterous drum machine programming.

The album is further notable for its rampant collaborations. Lee has recruited some of his most trusty allies, such as Anabel Englund, whom he was worked with extensively in the past in both Hot Natured and Pleasure State, as well as Camille Safiya, Anjulie and more.

“The album means so much to me personally, not just in hard work and late nights but in real emotion,” Foss says. “Seeing poems I wrote for my girlfriend come to life in “The Gift” and “Blue is the Distance,” or songwriting sessions like “Alchemy” with Camille Safiya or “Green Light” with Anjulie grow into organic songs through shared creation and take on a life of their own.”

The album ultimately plays at a deeper desire of Foss’s: to explore the intersection of spirituality and traditional scientific beliefs. “I titled the album Alchemy because I’ve long been fascinated by the scientific and spiritual dichotomy it represented, sort of as the crossroads of modern science and ancient spirituality, and its ethos of distilling perfection in the physical and spiritual realm,” Foss says. “It’s dismissed as pseudoscience now, but most of modern chemistry and the scientific method stems from it, and I’m interested in a world that better combines the spiritual realm with the scientific and western medicine we worship today.”

Standout Tracks: “Till The Light,” “Blue Is The Distance,” “Living In The City”

Lee Foss’s debut artist album Alchemy is out now. Stream it below and download it here.

Categories: Features, Music