FromBoise, IdahoRecommended if you likeDevo, Chai, Remi WolfUp nextDebut album Switcheroo released via Innovative Leisure on 27 June
The freshly hatched Gelli Haha is an old-school pop world-builder. The aesthetic world of her few singles so far recalls a kids’ soft-play centre, all bright primary colours and bouncy surfaces. Live, she fires bubble guns into the air, surrounded by caged inflatable sea creatures and red-clad backing dancers dressed as boxers. Her delightfully weird dance-pop draws from a toybox of vintage synths, and sounds as if it could be some rediscovered lost Euro new-wave pop curio, dabbling in Italo, sleazy chug and early electro.
It’s an immediately arresting proposition, but she’s also a slippery character, swerving across her debut album from the front-facing pop of Funny Music (which has some of Caroline Polachek’s DNA in its vocal ribboning) to more deranged tracks such as the tireless disco treadmill Tiramisu, or the acid-mangled Piss Artist’s account of getting wasted and peeing in a jar one night, a great addition to the annals of weird party girl curios.
Haha is the second go around for Idaho-born, Los Angeles-based musician Angel Abaya, who released an album of more standard indie fare in 2023. It was the result of several years grinding in the Boise music scene, as well as becoming programme director for a performing arts dance company. The latter prompted her to think bigger about the “Gelliverse” that she’s now realised since moving to LA. She made the forthcoming Switcheroo with Sean Guerin of the band De Lux and they along with her dancers form the Gelli Company. The idea, she says, is that “anyone can be a Gelli … it’s a fun, playful energy that anyone can embody.” The giddy Switcheroo makes it hard to resist.Laura Snapes
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