Photo by Adam Titchener

Last year, Kelly Lee Owens broke the infinite meditation mode that was her post-pandemic experimental outlier LP.8 and made her way out of the haze in a vibe of movement with her fourth offering, Dreamstate. It was one of the best electronic albums of the year, and from the sounds of “ASCEND”, the lead single off her upcoming extended play, KELLY, the Welsh producer isn’t ready to leave that place just yet.

It’s probably a good place as ever to be for where the mood colors our collective auras at the moment — a world rife with tension and chaos, but also all the more reason to channel that energy into something that can experienced as communal catharsis. Owens controls that precarious push and pull better than most in the realm of techno and dance by looking to the ordinary, and upending the norms in a way that leaves you primally satiated. “ASCEND”, in its climax design, is blueprint EDM right down to the build and drop, but takes the path more complex to get there: in getting outside of her mind, she finds heaven above the hellscape.

Kelly Lee Owens’ KELLY will be released November 21st on dh2.