August 27, 2021
Light in the Attic
2xLP (Pink Vinyl)
Pop music history is full of unsung iconoclasts whose influence and brilliance vastly outpaces their level of recognition. Leslie Winer is such an iconoclast. Forged in the New York art scene of the 1980s, where she counted Jean-Michel Basquiat and William S. Burroughs as friends, Winer moved to the UK in the early 90s where she recorded Witch, a dark, paranoid record consisting of industrial-tinged drum beats, warped guitar lines and Winer’s smoked-out, spoken-word vocals. This sound would take over British radio and nightlife in the years to come under the name of Trip-Hop. While Winer never achieved the recognition of groups like Massive Attack or Portishead, it’s impossible to hear either of these bands without noticing Winer’s musical DNA. When I Hit You - You’ll Feel It acts a brilliant survey of Winer’s music and her sound, placing her at the middle ground between Lydia Lunch and Tricky.