Thursday, January 23rd, ISSUE is pleased to present Just The Right Height, the solo music project of interdisciplinary artist Keke Hunt, and Drumloop, the recent moniker of artist and musician Daffy Scanlan, each presenting new solo work. Both artists chart critical new contexts at the intersection of fragmented narrative, sound design, pop music, song, and experimental composition.
Self-taught and independent in its vision and approach, Just The Right Height is an investigation of pop lyricism and idiosyncratic songwriting. Focusing on rhythm stripped of melody, repetition, detailed arrangements, and unique sound sources as her dominant compositional techniques, Hunt intersperses her catalogue with heartfelt, melodic tracks. At ISSUE, she performs songs from her last two albums, Let Forever Be Only You Tonight, released last year on 2018 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence James K’s She Rocks! label, and POST-FERGIE WHITE CHRISTMAS, released on Nick Klein & Miguel Alvariño’s Primitive Languages imprint. She will also perform new work from an as-yet unannounced upcoming album. Previously, Hunt has used online lyric generators that algorithmically recombined lyrics from existing pop songs as the starting point for many of her hybrid narratives, in her words “creating songs that are original while being reminiscent of previously expressed words and sentiments […] intended to be overused and uncanny […] something I notice in my favorite songs.” An inspired combination of noise, fashion, homemade and lo-fi aesthetics, folk, and pop music, the project is an at-times unhinged presentation of highly original songcraft.
Daffy Scanlan’s work has long drawn on the lines between electronic and organic sonics. Composing climatic melodies scaled up to expansive, affecting vistas, Scanlan combines heavily processed vocals and poetic storytelling — exploring fragmented collage and pop stylings in equal measure. A skilled pianist as a child, she worked between analog gear and Fruity Loops throughout her youth, releasing harsh noise and power electronics on a string of labels. But it was after her suitcase was stolen in 2017, containing almost all of her music equipment that Scanlan dove deep into FL Studio, turning a trying moment into an opportunity for deep sonic exploration of the software. The result were compositions with extensive nuance, accents, and details all flecked with digital detritus and swirling waves of echo — hovering between emotional meltdown and resilience. In 2018, Scanlan released her debut album Revenge Body as Drumloop via Sweat Equity. She continues to self-release tracks through SoundCloud.
Keke Hunt is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York. Hunt has performed and released music solo electronic music under various monikers including Just the Right Height since 2014. She has toured with acts such as Odwalla88, Sapphogeist, and Via App. She has releases on Primitive Languages and ALL GONE tapes and SheRocks! Hunt’s earliest music was released as You Nori and collaboration with Marisa Takal. She has also collaborated with Multimedia artist Bryan Edward Collins on a project called Hard World Fashion. She is currently working on her 3rd album and working as a tattoo artist.
Daffy Scanlan is an artist from New Jersey, who is currently based in New York City. Her work explores the transportation of objects / language through time and space, channeling their degeneration and disembodiment. She combines cracked and broken textures with dinged color stories, creating portals into a canon of abuse and trauma. Her compositions resemble cornucopias of disintegrating figures, like glowing bunches of archaic characters. She believes disappearing is equal to omnipresence.