A Tropical Entropy

Metromover

A phone call with a past mentor who at age 95 is still teaching piano, a memory of giggling at her transfixed mother photographing swans, a feeling of being floored whilst unearthing letters from her parents’ relationship. Exploring her most personal narratives to date, Laenz’s album ‘88 keys’ is suffused by the power of unwavering devotion - both towards others and towards lifelong study of music. Leaving behind the guilt of adolescent indignation and deviation from classical music towards fascination with leftfield dance music, the release circles back: a reverence to former piano teachers and the nurture they instilled in her.

Across ’88 keys’, loosely tethered memories and the intricate yet unpredictable sonic turns Laenz is known for are grounded through bass frequencies. On ’’11’ which samples recordings of Laenz’s last public performance of Bach’s ‘Chaconne in D minor’ arranged by Busoni, sustained solemnity is beset against misty, dubbed-out percussive explorations of piano acoustics. ’’24’ reminisces on lazy walks by Berlin canals, basslines ebbing hazily below spiralling hi-hats and caliginous melodies. ’9-30-91’ delicately re-casts one of the many love letters written by her father to her mother when they began dating, into a sonically distinct, tenderly stripped back vocal track. The lyrics read: ‘My dear, I miss you so much, I miss you deeply, from the bottom of my heart. Thoughts of you, occupy my whole heart, and every corner of my mind’.

Conversations, past performances, and archival recordings are run through iterations of radio transmission-reception, audio becoming irreversibly lost or altered into ambiguity. Each titled after a year, though not emotionally bound to it, the tracks are an aggregate of Laenz’s desire to calibrate them actively in her current memory—resisting any inevitable, obsolescent effects of time’s passing. In Laenz’s words ’88 keys’ ‘though a fraction of the appreciation I have for my parents, Carolyn Shaak, and Larry Graham, this project was from start to finish an ode to their impact. 

The singles ‘’11’ and ‘‘24’ are out on the 2nd and 9th May, ahead of the full album release on 16th May 2025.

Artist Bio:
Laenz is a producer based in Brooklyn, NY, working within radiophonic textures and caliginous dance music. Her work explores the sonification of indeterminate spaces, saturating abstract musical forms with intensely tender and personal observations. She uses vocals, radio equipment, and live processing in her performances, sonifying unknowable sounds into unsuspecting ears. She holds a Lot residency, and has released projects under Woozy, Early Reflex, Dance Data, and more.


Rayhans - Sometimes Remix

Tracey EP - Tracey

https://ad93.lnk.to/TraceyEP

All music written and performed by Tracey
Produced and mixed by Charles Stooke
Mastered by Kassian Troyer
Artwork by Aliou Janha
Additional art direction by Mateo Villanueva Brandt
Sleeve design by Ciaran Birch

Tracey - Tracey EP

Play

NTS Residency Show #51 (28.05.2025.)

@splintered

For this week’s episode of CENTER BOOTH we’re delighted to share a start-to-finish thrill ride from one of the most exciting artists working today: estoc. The Philadelphia-based DJ and producer is well known for her dazzling, highly inventive sets, intricate, compelling releases spanning the gamut of genres, startling, often hilarious mash-ups and edits, and uncompromising politics that are the lifeblood of her art. 

Her visceral, take no prisoners approach to DJing has seen her summoned to play transgressive techno parties all over the US, Europe, the UK, Asia and Australia, while her latest LP, Are We Doomed To Bow Down To The Stupid And Cruel? is a growling, guttural response to fascism, colonization and other craven ideologies.

Her CENTER BOOTH set, which plays in a live and compositional fashion, comes from that same place of staunch resistance, both a source of release and fuel for the ongoing fight. It’s hypnotic not in its repetition but in its restlessness, a disorienting rollercoaster of cacophony, distortion and aggressive melodies.

The effect is something like strapping in for a full throttle VR experience, a quest soundtracked by creeping pads, all manner of belligerent percussion, itchy snares and the full kitchen sink of FX. Featured artists include DJ Plead, WTCHCRFT, Dave Quam, estoc herself on remix duties, and the Prodigy, overlaid with extra thundering drums. We’d call it a masterclass but estoc is an artist who simply can’t be imitated. 

https://www.lettonne.dance/

estoc – Center Booth ◎ S2E09

SUN TO CLOSE

WRACK w/ Titaniüm - 28/07/2025

One of the ones we couldn’t put on the album.
Enjoy <3

Isai y Los Lokos - istillgetnerviososometimes

evelyn-castro-do-you-see-me-too-.m4a.wav

Producer/Sound Artist based in Miami.

Bookings:
NA/SA: cdanis@tbaagency.com, dlandau@tbaagency.com
ROW: carin@outer-agency.com 

other inquires: 
nickleon954@gmail.com

Metromover

Nick León

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