Should Be the Dancing Man

Los Angeles electronica downtempo trio UNA are back with their first release since 2010, The Laughing Man Remix. The band consists of Jennifer Nice, Eddie Baraja and Richard Larsen, who all came together in 2006 to form UNA. Often compared to Portishead and Massive Attack, UNA hold their own with an astounding blending of genres that pushes boundaries and makes for a damn good listening time.

Remix treats listeners to a feast of sounds. The album blends Latin vibes with 1920s-like jazz and stellar electronic beats. This album is timeless because it covers so many periods that you could never pin it down to just one. Nice’s vocals stab at your heart with the same kind of pain that the greats like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald had saturating their songs. This isn’t your typical loud club music: it’s smoother, more sophisticated—you drink wine to these tracks, not vodka and Red Bull. Remix would be the perfect album for that speakeasy party you’ve been planning since you saw The Great Gatsby with its Jazz Age sound and modern twists.

The only downside to The Laughing Man Remix is that some of the songs can quickly turn repetitive and dull— specifically, “Angels At My Gate.” This is just a small glitch, though, on an otherwise brilliant album. Any moments of dullness are made up for quickly with brilliant tracks like “We Are the Lonely,” which is at once lively and maddeningly sinister. It is a song that sounds like sin—a key ingredient to any good time.

It is truly a shame that a band as experimental and interesting as UNA aren’t more of a household name. They aren’t light, but The Laughing Man Remix offers a fantastic time to any listener. Go snag this cherry off of the ole iTunes and start touting it off to all your friends— this is a prime opportunity to become “that friend with great taste.”