Live Review: LISTEN: Ladyhawke 'Sunday Drive' (Gigamesh Remix)

I remember discovering LADYHAWKE– aka New Zealand artist Phillipa Brown - for the first time. It’s hard to forget an experience like that...

I’d started my first internship with a theatre company in Brisbane, I was slaving away at the kind of mind-numbing busy work they give to interns, and from the desk beside me rose the first strains of LADYHAWKE's biggest commercial success to date, ‘Delirium’. This, of course, resulted in the week long spree of listening to nothing but ‘Delirium’ (de rigueur at the time), and ended with me rocking backwards and forwards, clutching my knees and humming the hook over and over to myself.

You’ll be glad to hear that I’ve since recovered, and no longer have a semi-Pavlovian response to hearing the chorus. Unfortunately for me, ‘Sunday Drive’ - the first single from her sophomore album ‘Anxiety’ - is due out May 22^nd, and it’s set to be just as addictive as every other LADYHAWKE song.

As I await the 22^nd – which I have come to know as ‘The Reckoning’ – I’ve been slowly rebuilding my tolerance for Ladyhawke’s sound by allowing myself to listen to GIGAMESH's remix of the forthcoming single a carefully regulated two times day.

There are, of course, other remixes by other artists, but GIGAMESH has done a sweet-ass job on this one: It’s true to the LADYHAWKE sound we all know, and though this has been mixed as a significantly more dance-y version of the original, it stays true to the traditional 80’s influence and doesn’t forsake the honesty of Brown’s lyrics or vocals. Like all good LADYHAWKE songs (and I do mean all of them), this is a song that manages to toe the fine line between “sinister” and “surprisingly upbeat” at the same time.

‘Anxiety’ will hit Australian stores on May 25^th. In the meantime, you can check out LADYHAWKE on her website and GIGAMESH on his, or, check out more of his remixes which can be found on Soundcloud.    

Five stars, dude.

Words by Cheryl Billman.

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