Kyla La Grange's sophomore album, 2014's
Cut Your Teeth, finds the British chanteuse expanding beyond her psych-folk roots into a more electronic-infused sound. Following her 2012 debut,
Ashes,
La Grange began working on new material with producer/DJ James Jacob, aka Jakwob. Primarily known for his own electronic dance music and for remixing cuts by artists including
Ellie Goulding, Jakwob helped
La Grange successfully expand her sound. Writing songs together, they moved away from the guitar-oriented sound of
Ashes and toward a more contemporary electronica style. If on
Ashes La Grange seemed to split the difference between the yearning caterwaul of
Florence + the Machine and sensuous coo of
Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, on
Cut Your Teeth she sounds clearly indebted to the arty pop of
Kate Bush. However, rather than simply stealing from
Bush's '70s and '80s art rock playbook,
La Grange seems to have found her own voice out of that inspiration. Some fans may miss her previous incarnation, which touched upon the British folk tradition of singers like
Sandy Denny and
Eliza Carthy. That said,
Cut Your Teeth retains much of
La Grange's intricate and deeply emotional style, clearly born out of a love of bands like
Fairport Convention and
Steeleye Span. In fact, much of
Cut Your Teeth sounds something along the lines of a
Denny solo album if she had lived long enough to work with a producer like
William Orbit. In that sense,
La Grange's newfound electronic experimentalism also fits nicely next to works by her similarly inclined contemporaries like
Goulding,
Grimes, and
Alex Winston, adding a unique and unmistakable twist to the subgenre that makes it seem all her own. ~ Matt Collar