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May 04, 2014 By Laura Studarus Dawn Golden

Earlier this year, Maria Lindén spoke candidly to Under the Radar about her experiences with stage fright, admitting that it’s something she’s been struggling to overcome since she was a kid. As proved last night in Los Angeles, the final stop on the I Break Horses’ North America tour, it’s a battle that she’s winning. Even when faced with both technical issues and an absentee sound guy (the only logical way to explain the earsplitting mix), the Swedish musician handled her headlining set with grace.

The collective pulled extensively from Lindén’s recently released sophomore album Chiaroscuro, a focus that made for a far more dance-oriented set than their previous stop in Los Angeles in support of her debut album, Hearts. (To the 40-something man in front of us who took to busting awkward dance moves at odd moments—you are my spirit animal.) It was an adroit act of shapeshifting. Lindén has done walls of shoegaze sound. Now she’s moved on, pairing her breathy soprano with billowing synths (“Medicine Brush”), aggressive dance beats (set highlight “Denial”), or using it more as an instrumental element (“Disclosure”). It should come to no surprise that I Break Horses is on Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins)-owned label Bella Union. Her work shares in the same ethereal/mysterious essence as labelmates Snowbird and Lanterns on the Lake. (Albeit in a far more electronic form.)

Also present was show opener, Dawn Golden. Previously, Los Angeles artist Dexter Tortoriello has aired on the lighter side with his ambient pop project Houses. Dawn Golden’s sonic patchwork of found sounds, metal screeching and melancholy vocals was a brilliant 180 from that aesthetic, proving that Tortoriello might be the rare artist that has something for (almost) everybody. His new album Still Life is out May 13 on Mad Decent. Highly recommended.

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