When TAAHLIAH’s debut EP Angelica was released in 2021, the Glasgow-based DJ and producer was already being lauded internationally for her distinct synthesis of hyper-pop and hard dance. The EP cemented her position as a breakthrough artist but further led to her being championed by her peers and welcomed into spaces that enabled the celebration of her unique artistry. Last year, for example, she was invited to perform with the London Contemporary Orchestra at the Southbank Centre as part of their Purcell Sessions. The experience not only emphasised the sheer range on display during a TAAHLIAH live performance, but that her compositions fit just as well in a concert hall as they do in a club. For TAAHLIAH, it was a pivotal moment but even more so because the performance included some early demos of tracks that would go on to feature on her debut album, marking the very first steps towards Gramarye.
As well as allowing for a new type of experimentalism in its songwriting, Gramarye is an expansive record in sound, with pop balladry, self-sampling and dramatic instrumental shifts signalling a new direction. As on Angelica, the production is rich and weighty but there’s a new vulnerability on display across Gramarye’s eleven tracks, reinforced in part by the addition of TAAHLIAH’s own vocals for the first time.
Opener ‘Lachrymose’ sets the tone in its rousing spoken word introduction, Brooklyn ballroom legend Octavia St. Laurent’s voice echoing over atmospheric synth notes, building until the triumphant finale of her closing lines: “Everything you do in life is like a boomerang. When you throw it, it eventually comes back. Don’t fuck with me.” This sentiment returns throughout Gramarye, but in a way that merges playfulness and tenacity with devastating confessionals and sombre lyricism. Tracks like ‘Boys’, for instance, is a cheeky, pounding club banger, leading seamlessly onto the slow burning ‘2018’, about the heartbreak and desperation of an early relationship. Vocals by longtime collaborator naafi, with backing from Tsatsamis and Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange, create a tapestry of emotion and experimental pop beauty.
Elsewhere, ‘Cherish’ and ‘Angel’, both featuring naafi’s soothing voice backed by TAAHLIAH’s own, are delicate and ethereal, the latter’s refrain of “The world is hard but I’m soft like an angel” accompanied by a saccharine sweet harp melody. ‘Eylvue’, meanwhile, is a more typical club-ready track, its mechanistic beats flooding the sampled vocals that repeat ‘I love you’ all the way through. Closing track ‘Holding On / Let Me Go’ opens with an otherworldly bagpipe drone, the theatrical elements of the instrumentation continuing in the track’s anthemic harmony-fuelled finish.
On her experience with the London Contemporary Orchestra, TAAHLIAH noted: “Being able to hear the demos in that context changed the entire direction [of Gramarye]. That’s when I knew I wanted it to sound as big as possible.” There are so many captivatingly disparate and genuinely mesmerising moments on Gramarye. But it’s the space and grandiose feel of both the writing and the production, as well as the sensitivity with which it is brought together, that underlines TAAHLIAH’s full capacity as an artist skilfully traversing genres.
