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For the album, see L'Rain (album).
L'Rain
L'Rain in Columbus in 2022
L'Rain in Columbus in 2022
Background information
Birth nameTaja Cheek
OriginBrooklyn, New York; Yale University (B.A.)
GenresExperimental pop
OccupationsMulti-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, curator
LabelsMexican Summer, Astro Nautico
Websitewww.lrain.info

Taja Cheek, known professionally as L'Rain, is an American experimentalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator known primarily as the lead vocalist and songwriter of her eponymous band.[1][2] L'Rain has been recognized for experimental music that draws on a vast number of traditions and genres[3][4] in a practice and aesthetic Cheek calls "approaching songness".[1]

Her self-titled debut, L'Rain, was included in best-of-year lists by publications including Pitchfork[4] and Bandcamp Daily;[5] her second album, Fatigue (2021), was named the best album of the year by The Wire.[6] She has collaborated with artists including Vagabon, Helado Negro,[1] and Naama Tsabar,[7] and performed with Kevin Beasley at the Whitney Museum of American Art.[8]

Early life and career

Cheek was born and raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn,[9] where she lived with her mother, father, and grandparents.[1] Her father, Wyatt Cheek, worked in music marketing and promotion for entities including Select Records and Kiss FM;[1] her grandmother ran a liquor store;[2] and in the 1950s her grandfather owned a neighborhood jazz club.[10] Cheek's mother, Lorraine C. Porter, taught physical education, health, math, and science in Brooklyn schools.[11] The stage name L'Rain is an homage to Porter, who died before the release of the self-titled debut.[12]

Cheek studied ballet and modern dance at The Ailey School[10] and learned piano, cello, and Baroque recorder before picking up bass in high school,[1] then forming and joining groups that included an Iron Maiden cover band.[10] She attended Yale to study music but dropped the major, citing factors including a lack of diversity among the program's course offerings.[13] She transferred to the American Studies program, where her major included a concentration in visual, audio, literary, and performance cultures;[14] in 2011, she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction.[15] While at Yale she worked as music director of radio station WYBC and booked shows.[1]

After graduating, Cheek returned to New York. She resumed playing in and co-leading Brooklyn bands including Throw Vision;[16] the group released their debut in 2013 and a 7" EP in 2015.[17] She also began presenting and curating public art, working with organizations such as Creative Time and the High Line.[13] In 2014, Cheek was a site manager for the Funk, God, Jazz, and Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn exhibit, installing a radio station in a pink Cadillac outside the Utica Avenue A/C subway station[18] in homage to Jitu Weusi, black nationalist community arts center The East, and jazz nonprofit and festival the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium.[19] The same year, she co-organized "The Kara Walker Experience: WE ARE HERE", a public gathering of people of color at the Domino Sugar Refinery for Kara Walker's installation A Subtlety.[20] Cheek began working for contemporary art institution MoMA PS1 in 2016, with curatorial work including co-organizing the Sunday Sessions and Warm Up series;[21] as of 2021, she serves as Associate Curator.[1]

In 2017, Cheek released the self-titled L'Rain on New York City-based[22] label Astro Nautico.[12] She composed and performs vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, bass, samples, and percussion on the album;[23] L'Rain also features Alex Goldberg, Jeremy Powell, Kyp Malone (of TV on the Radio), and Andrew Lappin, who co-produced the album with Cheek.[24] Pitchfork included L'Rain among their 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2017,[4] and Bandcamp Daily listed the release as #10 in their Best Albums of 2017.[5] L'Rain's second album, Fatigue, was released on Mexican Summer in 2021.[25] The album met with wide acclaim, with positive reviews from outlets including Pitchfork[26] and NPR.[9] Cheek provides vocals and plays guitar, bass, synth, keyboards, piano, percussion, tape effects, and airhorn on the album, which also features an expanded roster of twenty collaborators.[10]

In July 2021, Cheek performed at Mass MOCA after a week-long residency.[27] She toured with Black Midi in the Fall of 2021 [28] and will be touring with Animal Collective in Spring 2022.[29]

Musical style

L'Rain often layers and loops her vocals, and her work frequently features samples from her collection of hundreds of field recordings, some pitch-shifted or otherwise manipulated beyond recognition.[1] She has spoken in interviews about her work's tendency to evade[1] or reject[2] categorization, saying that she is "more interested in a Barthes, Death of the Author, approach to genre",[30] values illegibility,[2] and seeks to complicate assumptions about the relationship between identity and aesthetics: "I’m hyper-aware of how marketing and packaging happens for Black people and women and Black women [...] I like feeling a sense of agency in how those stories are told".[10]

AllMusic described L'Rain as making "dreamy, genre-blurring music [...], reflecting on grief, change, joy, and resistance through a collage-like mixture of soul, psychedelia, gospel, musique concrète, and numerous other genres."[31] Pitchfork described her 2021 album Fatigue as "painterly and methodical, daubing vocal loops over clattering percussion, sweeping strings, and resonant synths to create a shapeshifting strain of experimental pop."[26] Reviewers have variously identified her style and influences as including free jazz, ambient, noise music, and disco;[12] dance;[26] "psychedelic orchestral pop" and "distorted shoegaze";[3] krautrock, outsider music, and hip hop;[24] R&B and avant-garde rock;[2] gospel, funk, and post-punk;[25] and soul, drone, avant-pop, and musique concrète.[10]

While Cheek is the sole fixed figure in L'Rain recordings and performances, she says the project follows a "more nuanced and collective [model]" than that of the "lone genius or creator": "I’m trying to find a way to nurture my own voice and singular vision, especially as a Black woman musician, while also acknowledging that I work collaboratively with a team that is essential to the project."[32] As of June 2021, L'Rain's bandmates are Ben Chapoteau-Katz, Justin Felton, and Alwyn Robinson.[32]

Discography

Studio albums

Title Year Label Format
L'Rain[12] 2017 Astro Nautico LP, digital download
Fatigue[33] 2021 Mexican Summer LP, digital download

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pareles, Jon (24 June 2021). "L'Rain's Songs Hold Ghosts, Demons and Healing". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e Fraden, Angel E. (26 February 2018). "Meet L'Rain, the Mystic Multi-Instrumentalist and Vocalist Whose Intimate Music Will Mesmerize You". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b Berlatsky, Noah (1 July 2021). "L'Rain creates glittering, warped pop collages on Fatigue". The Chicago Reader. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Geffen, Sasha (15 December 2017). "The 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2017". Pitchfork. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  5. ^ a b "The Best Albums of 2017: #20 – 1". Bandcamp Daily. 15 December 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  6. ^ "The Wire's Releases of the Year 2021". The Wire. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  7. ^ "Rosana Cabán joins Naama Tsabar at Kasmin Gallery". The Computer Music Center at Columbia University. 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  8. ^ "Performance from Kevin Beasley: A view of a landscape". Whitney Museum of American Art. 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  9. ^ a b Garcia-Navarro, Lulu (28 June 2021). "L'Rain's Latest Album 'Fatigue' Explores The Power Of Change". NPR. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Pelly, Jenn (28 June 2021). "L'Rain Wants to Confuse You". Pitchfork. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  11. ^ "Lorraine C. Porter, Age 59". United Federation of Teachers. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  12. ^ a b c d Balfour, Jay (28 September 2017). "L'Rain: L'Rain". Pitchfork. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  13. ^ a b "JOB Interview: Taja Cheek". BenSisto.com. October 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  14. ^ "In medias res". Yale Daily News. 27 January 2012. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  15. ^ "Wadada Leo Smith in Conversation with Taja Cheek". Walker Art Center. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  16. ^ Berumen, Gwen. "DIY Band 'Throw Vision' Talks Genre And Identity". BUST. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  17. ^ "Stream Throw Vision's Were It Will 7-Inch". Impose Magazine. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  18. ^ Gallagher, Kristen (10 October 2014). "Why you should experience Funk, God, Jazz, and Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn". Public Books. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  19. ^ "Jazz, 'The East' and a Pink Cadillac: Outdoor Exhibit Reflects on Black Radical Brooklyn". BKReader. 29 September 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  20. ^ "We Are Here:Black Women Claim Their Space at Kara Walker's Controversial Sugar Sphinx Show". EBONY Magazine. 2 July 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  21. ^ Murnighan, Annie (13 March 2018). "MoMA PS1 curator Taja Cheek dives into New York's experimental music scene". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  22. ^ Kuhn, Bennett. "Labeled: Astro Nautico". Impose Magazine. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  23. ^ Berlatsky, Noah (4 September 2017). "Music on the Horizon". Splice Today. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  24. ^ a b Schube, Will (8 September 2017). "L'Rain's Debut Album Is A Rollercoaster Ride of Soul, Shoegaze, and Dance". Bandcamp. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  25. ^ a b Moore, Marcus J. (24 June 2021). "L'Rain's "Fatigue" Captures the Everyday Nuances of Black Life". Bandcamp Daily. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  26. ^ a b c Torres, Eric (29 June 2021). "L'Rain: Fatigue". Pitchfork. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  27. ^ "L'Rain". Mass MOCA. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  28. ^ "black midi expand tour, add 2nd NYC date". Brooklynvegan. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  29. ^ "Animal Collective Announce New Album Time Skiffs, Share New Video: Watch". Pitchfork. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  30. ^ Bourgeois, Jasmine (November 2018). "In Conversation with L'Rain". Tom Tom Magazine. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  31. ^ Simpson, Paul. "L'Rain - Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  32. ^ a b Berzon, Stephanie (23 June 2021). "A Healing Vortex: Taja Cheek Interviewed by Stephanie Berzon". BOMB. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  33. ^ Bloom, Madison (31 March 2021). "L'Rain Announces New Album Fatigue, Shares New Song: Listen". Pitchfork. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
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