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Jul 14, 2015 LA Priest By Nina Corcoran

LA Priest is all over the place. Thank goodness. Sam Dust, the 28-year-old behind the moniker, split with Late of the Pier in 2010 and hopped around the globe playing guitar in Connan Mockasin’s band. It’s the type of musical splattering that gets you into some weird territory, and Dust embraced it instead of shying up on his debut LP, Inji.

Dust is lucky. Through a decision some would deem brave and others entirely impossible, he hid from the Internet for nearly half a decade. The world exists outside of that, but in terms of what’s risen and plateaued and expanded in those years—especially the work of fellow electronic acts Mount Kimbie and Son Lux—Dust has been oblivious to his own similarities within the industry. Because of that, his variations on nostalgia and intuition are truly his own. The soul funk of “Occasion” or tribal percussion of “Lorry Park” stand proud, no matter whom (The Weeknd and Animal Collective respectively) they hat-tip.

Things cool down with “Night Train” and “Lady’s In Trouble With the Law,” but it’s his celebratory dance numbers, not the soulful brushes, that raise Inji up. LA Priest tackles Hot Chip territory on eight-minute dance evolution “Party Zute / Learning To Love.” Then comes “Oino,” a staccato joust between vocals and a rolling bass line. Here, the palm tree dance of Todd Terje is pushed aside for the deep grooves of unfiltered funk gone avant-garde. If LA Priest has anything to prove, it’s that isolation breeds a new collective warmth as wraps experimental electronics in sheets of funk, all for a record that feels years beyond its debut stamp. (www.facebook.com/trulylapriest)

Author rating: 8/10