Daily Tune: TOKiMONSTA – Early to Dawn (feat. Selah Sue)

Imagine waking up tomorrow and realising that you’ve completely forgotten how to drive, or write, or count. Imagine if some skill, fundamental to your life and ingrained into your mind’s deepest recesses just up and vanished, and you had to start again. Well, that’s what happened to Jennifer Lee, aka TOKiMONSTA. An established producer in the LA scene for years, she’s worked with everyone from Anderson .Paak to Kool Keith to Jessie Ware. She’s nothing short of a legend in the electronic/broken beat scene.

Recently, she revealed that only a year ago, she had to undergo neurological surgery to treat an illness called Moyamoya, which is extremely rare and, if unchecked, fatal. While the operation was a complete success, she found herself unable to remember how to make, or even understand music. Since January of last year, she’s been painstakingly relearning everything she forgot, and after months of hard work and rehabilitation, she’s back, and she brought a whole new album with her

Lune Rouge dropped on Friday, and while it’s distinctly TOKiMONSTA, there’s something remarkably fresh and refined. It has much more an orchestral vibe to it than her previous albums, and while the beats are just as intoxicating as they ever were, there’s an amazing level of emotional depth, especially on the tracks which feature guest vocals. On two of them, Lee drafted in Belgian vocalist Selah Sue, and if ever there was a perfect combination of producer and singer, this might well be it.

The second track on the album featuring Sue, Early to Dawn, is probably the standout of the record. The lyrics are measured, and the track builds magically, with a kind of metered, distilled intensity. This genuinely feels like music made by someone who has just been given a new lease on life. Now, try to image forgetting that fundamental skill, and then fighting to get it back, imagine the elation of overcoming such an obstacle. That’s what Lune Rouge is.