On her most defining headline tour to date, Welsh techno and dream pop producer Kelly Lee Owens brought the universe of her latest project, Dreamstate to the ever charming Metro. I had the pleasure of catching a tidbit of her set at the 2021 rendition of the late Pitchfork Music Festival and I have been eagerly waiting to finally catch her again, this time at her own show! As though Kelly didn’t have a marvelous discography already; Dreamstate is simply on another level. I am a HUGE fan of Dirty Hit’s roster of artists so naturally I was thrilled at the fact that she would be joining their new electronic music label branch, Dh2. This ambitious project was her first release under her new label and I can wholeheartedly say that it crept its way up to one of my favorite projects of 2024.
On Dreamstate , Owens utilizes her vocals more than ever before, which translated beautifully during her live performance. Positioned at the center of the stage and surrounded by two mixing consoles and three mic stands; I knew this was going to be a spectacular set! Kelly commenced with the album’s title track, “Dreamstate” that perfectly set the tone for the rest of her show. This was followed by her song “Dark Angel” in which her vocal performance vastly exceeded the already flawless studio version of this song. She then covered Aaliyah’s iconic “More Than A Woman”, sending everyone at the metro into complete bliss.
Owens performed an equal balance of songs from Dreamstate as well as from her previous works. The crowd was completely mesmerized and locked into her set that it felt like it ended so abruptly! She concluded her set with the most ideal three song run, “Sunshine,” “Melt!” and her own rendition of Jenny Hval’s “Kingsize.” I don’t know about anyone else but by the end of the show I was sweating and out of breath. It was truly a performance I will always reflect on and seeing how far Kelly Lee Owens has come since the short amount of time that has passed since I last saw her has been nothing short of inspiring.
I think my favorite made up genre that I usually use to categorize my Spotify playlists is what I like to call “emotional dance music.” There is something so liberating about an earworm of a beat paired with insightful and meaningful lyrics that hit you right in the heart and the soul. Kelly Lee Owens has vastly leveled up both her aesthetic and her production and I am so eager to hear what she produces next under her new label.