Stream: Mating Ritual, ‘Mating Ritual’ EP
Kevin Bronson on
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Twenty-six-year-old Ryan Marshall Lawhon takes his nom de tune — Mating Ritual — literally on his first proper EP, a self-titled affair released Friday. Lawhon, who debuted his project in early 2015 after teaming with his brother Taylor in the electro duo Pacific Air, takes listeners through a four-song relationship cycle on the EP, starting with the previously released and unfailingly catchy power-pop romp “I Wear Glasses.” The highlight might be “I Can’t Dance,” the sound of a romance fracturing set to galloping drums and sharp guitars. Collaborator Lizzy Land contributes vocals on “Cold,” an oozing throwback to Lawhon’s synth-pop days, and “Don’t Know Your Name” flashes back to the New Wave ’80s with some modern wrinkles. There’s no happy ending in Lawhon’s narrative, just a four-pack of sticky pop egress.
||| Stream: “Mating Ritual” EP
||| Live: Mating Ritual does the free Monday night residency this month at the Satellite, starting March 7.
||| Previously: “I Wear Glasses,” “Hum Hum,” “Toxins”
[…] work has collaborated with artists such as Nick Littlemore of Empire of the Sun, Paul Oakenfold and Mating Ritual. “I’ve had all these chapters, all these different scenes and phases in my life and while […]