- Shimmering club anthems with the right amount of disco hedonism and a hint of pop.
- Over the course of the pandemic, Kim Anh relocated to New York (both city and upstate) from the West Coast where, as the founder of the party Booby Trap!, she was once christened the "LA club queen." After leaving behind her queendom, her latest EP After Dark was written, Anh explains, as a "reflection of missing my past life and finding beauty in the current way of life." Nowhere is this clearer than on the slow jam "Giving," where disco string stabs twirl around a smoky piano motif. Her vocals are wonderfully forlorn and sad, like wandering into some forgotten dive at the end of the night, but one where the pianist has a 303 going. After Dark is made of these contrasts, with neon club colors brightening after hours jazz bars.
Chugging along at 122 BPM, both "After Dark" and "House Of Virgo" fall somewhere between house and disco. The title track juxtaposes cinematic chords with a sinister bassline, the "House Of Virgo" is even bigger and just a bit chintzier. Anh's vocals are a soaring reverie to night time accented by gurgles of acid. "Recovering" is the dark horse on the record, but also the highlight, with a dusty piano offset by a junglish breakbeat, capturing the emotional palette of producers like Nia Archives or PinkPantheress. With its Tik-Tok ready-made one-liners (my personal fav is: "I pray for you / I crochet for you"), it seems destined to soundtrack Gen Z love affairs.
Alongside a slew of remixes and one-offs, Anh's two previous EPs featured only one original contribution alongside remixes from the likes of Eli Escobar and The Juan Maclean. These passing glimpses of Anh were excellent (in particular, I love this one on DJ Hell's Gigolo Records, a natural home for her brand of club kid irreverence), but After Dark is Anh's most extensive release to date. Still, she is careful not to dress the record up as something it isn't—just have a look at that catalog number. This is an EP that is best enjoyed up, as Anh blends a nocturnal cocktail perfectly suited for, as she sings on "House Of Virgo," the "time to remember a sensual revelation."
Tracklist01. After Dark
02. House Of Virgo
03. Giving
04. Recovering
05. Recoering (Alinka Remix)