Live Review: Ash Hendriks takes her seat at the table of understated pop-electronica with 'One'

Sydney-based producer ASH HENDRIKS has travelled a long and winding career trajectory since releasing her debut single under the LEURE moniker back in 2012. Her work under the Leure alias was distant-sounding, haunting, ethereal and serene but in a relatively intangible manner that felt reminiscent of some of GRIMES’ more ambient leaning productions. But since returning under her birth name, Ash’s work has embodied a new sense of personal confidence and has demonstrated a willingness to open up her vulnerabilities.

Across a string of singles she’s released since then, the most recent being last year’s ‘Lost in Dreams’, her sound has evolved in slight but surprising directions, bringing her vocals more to the fore whilst taking the elemental pieces of her aesthetic as Leure and reorienting them with a considerably more pop focus.  

Her wonderfully washed-out new single, ‘One’, further cements her spot in a wave of understated pop electronica that’s become something of a quiet trend over the years. The blissful production is built around gently pulsating synths, a crisp, spacious beat and some far-off, reverb-soaked vibraphone floating in the background. ‘One’ moves slowly, almost as though its lost in its own reverie, but Ash’s warm vocal melodies and her lush, velvet tone keep it from feeling too cold or distant. The result is a track which feels airy but husky, like the huddled, warm breath you draw to keep the slight bite of a crisp, early winter morning at bay. Instead, it perfectly condenses the movements of the hesitant, slowly rising, nebulous type of intimacy that Ash alludes to on the track’s hook: “And can I take you home tonight? / Let me be the one to.”

WORDS BY KYLE FENSOM

IMAGE via Purple Sneakers

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