In 1972, People Records, the label started by James Brown, released a 45-rpm single credited to “The Female Preacher” Lynn Collins. The flip contained a Bill Withers cover. The A-Side featured “Think (About It)”, a punchy funk lecture aimed at the guys “who go out and stay out all night and half the next day and expect us [sisters] to be home when you get there”. John “Jabo” Starks, then-drummer for Brown’s band the JB’s, provided the breakbeats producers would later sample for everything from light-hearted party jams, to disquieting 1990s rave staples, to more contemporary dance music deconstructions. According to the WhoSampled, “Think (About It)” has been sampled in 3,830 songs.
“Lucky U”, the second track on TOKiMONSTA’s new album Eternal Reverie, is a vibrant addition to the list. Crisp kicks throb over Starks’s break. That inimitable snare is augmented by the bright click of a handclap and tails off with a touch of reverb on the last beat of each bar. The break is shortened and looped to build momentum leading into the chorus. Collins’ clean snatch of tambourine gets chopped and shaken into the groove, filling the familiar role of the hi-hat in a house track. “Lucky You” typifies the overall soundscape of Eternal Reverie: lushly synthesized house and pop hybrids that have the flourish and sheen of contemporary electronic music while subtly harkening back to dance music’s forebearers.
TOKiMONSTA is Jennifer Lee, a Korean-American producer who grew up in Torrance, California. Lee has been releasing music under the TOKiMONSTA moniker since the late 2000s. Her earliest productions mainly resembled instrumental hip-hop producers affiliated with the Low End Theory party in the Los Angeles’ Lincoln Heights neighborhood: Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Nosaj Thing, and Teebs.
Her debut album, Midnight Menu, featured downtempo rap beats with aggressively compressed drums and gobs of shimmering synthesizers. Though characteristic of the scene from which it spawned, TOKiMONSTA set herself apart by lacing her beats with rich tonal flourishes. On tracks like “Lucid Dreaming” and “Sa Mo Jung”, curious percussive sounds and synthesized textures ripple and squelch in the foreground, at times concealing their foundational drums.
In 2015, Lee was diagnosed with Moyamoya, a rare disease that causes the arteries that deliver blood to the brain to become constrained or blocked. After recovering from surgery, Lee was unable to comprehend music. Her brain registered individual sounds but could not fit them together. She struggled through songwriting until finally completing the track “I Wish I Could Be”, which made her subsequent album Lune Rouge. In 2018, Lune Rouge was nominated for the Grammy award for Best Dance/Electronic Album.
Lune Rouge and 2020’s Oasis Nocturno contain mostly uncluttered, conventionally structured pop songs. These albums skirted any studio indulgence that didn’t bolster the guest vocals. Eternal Reverie keeps the same format – pop songs with guest vocalists – but differs in decisions, blending TOKiMONSTA’s penchant for pop jams with the eccentric touch of her early beats.
“Feel It” sounds like a deep-house exercise remodeled into uptempo pulse-pop, moving from the cavernous techno club to the main stage. The track features call-and-response vocals from grouptherapy. (who have since changed their name to PartyOf2), distorted hi-hats, and big-room risers. Casual listeners might overlook the song as by-the-numbers club fodder. Close listening on a quality speaker system reveals synthesized twinkles, discreet layers of melody, and subtle EQ adjustments that give the track a sense of fluidity.
TOKiMONSTA uses the full-length format to flex her range as a producer. The closer, “Infinity’s Embrace”, hints at her potential for making quiet storm R&B. The chopped-up hip-hop beat on “Sci Fi” features filtered horn samples and a satisfying bassline for Mez to flow over, showcasing her boom-bap production chops. “Corazón / Death By Disco Pt 2” is the descendant of Midnight Menu’s “Death By Disco” and helps one imagine the killer bootleg disco edits TOKiMONSTA could churn out (if she hasn’t already).
On “Switch It”, R&B duo GAWD implore a lover to “keep it interesting” over a tech house beat complete with bass drops, clave stabs, and a fog of reverberated vocals swooshing beneath the hard-edged drums. The lyric sums up the album. Eternal Reverie is engaging from start to finish. Though the shorter tracks “Warm Water (Interlude)” and “Eternal” feel unfinished, as if TOKiMONSTA pulled back too early on songs beginning to blossom, they’re vibrant and fun. If there’s any disappointment to be felt, it’s from wanting more of a good thing. There are no duds on Eternal Reverie.