Single Review: Leila (Ft. Mt Sims) – ‘(Disappointed Cloud) Anyway’

Iranian-born and now located in London, IDM producer Leila has certainly had an impressive career to date; she’s released records on mainstay electronic music labels such as Warp, collaborated with artists as diverse as Björk and Terry Hall, and earned many high-profile fans, notably Aphex Twin.

‘(Disappointed Cloud) Anyway,’ the first single from her upcoming fourth album U&I, is a perfect demonstration of why her star continues to rise. Settling into a steady rhythm of sub-bass jolts and fidgety, clicked rhythms, the track is slowly percolated by bleeping videogame synths which in their rising ascents and crashing descents, do a great deal to add drama to proceedings.

Carving out his own unique sonic space atop the electronic frivolity occurring below, collaborator, and notable producer in his own right, Mt Sims adds a haunting cooed vocal line that transforms the track from interesting enough electronica into potential dance floor filler. That’s not to say Leila doesn’t deserve any credit here either; it’s her inspired manipulation of the fragmented vocal patterns that really fuses it to her cacophonous array of synths. The result? A cohesive whole that both terrifies and inspires depending on whereabouts electronic music sits with you.

By Alex Cull