Album Review: The Planet by Young Ejecta

Thanks to a cease-and-desist order from a similarly named DJ, Joel Ford and Leanne Macomber had to change the name of their electropop project Ejecta shortly after the release of their debut album, Dominae. Now known as Young Ejecta, their first work under their new name suggests that the change was more than superficial. These delicate, elastic songs pair wide-eyed sentiments with music that's considerably more sophisticated, a combination that sets the duo apart from many other synth pop purveyors (including some of Macomber and Ford's other projects).

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Young Ejecta, the musical collaborative project by Neon Indian's Leanne Macomber and producer Joel Ford, operates in the hazy world between traditional pop and electronic music, often employing the combination of heartfelt lyrics and four-on-the-floor beats that Robyn has popularized. Mini-album opener "Into Your Heart" is a particularly apt representation of the pair's dynamic, with Macomber's soft and twee delivery paired with similarly cutesy electronic flourishes, only to become engulfed in a pulsating 4/4 drumbeat. Instead of sounding disjointed, Ford's production heightens the vulnerability of Macomber's vocals and the pair's lyrics.

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Head here to submit your own review of this album. Leanne Macomber has grafted her way round the music world for quite some time. She played keyboards and synth on the blissed-out pop of Neon Indian, as well as her own four-track bedroom project, Fight Bite. She has now teamed up with producer Joel Ford who creates under his own split namesake Ford & Lopatin, Oneohtrix Point Never and Autre Ne Veut.

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Leanne Macomber is an expressionist in every sense of the word. And let’s not confuse her usual naked appearance as exhibitionism, because as Young Ejecta, she’s very much in character. To Macomber, Young Ejecta is a woman metamorphosized from volcanic activity, one who has been re-born into a different world than the one she once knew. She seeks to represent the “everywoman” through this musical endeavor, along with her production half, Joel Ford (of Ford & Lopatin, Oneohtrix Point Never).

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For legal reasons, Ejecta, a mystical alien everywoman embodied by Leanne Macomber and given a soundtrack by producer Joel Ford, now goes by Young Ejecta. At the risk of sounding a little like the pair have wandered into the rap game, the new name works; "ejecta" is the word for the dust that falls after a volcano erupts or a meteorite strikes the earth. Fresh dust implies a recent impact, and so does the duo's new record, The Planet, which sees Macomber reeling from heartbreak and trauma.

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Synth-pop became the default sound of indie music at some point in the last decade, somewhere between the whirlwinds of chillwave’s success, EDM’s skyrocketing popularity, and the beguiling phenomenon that had artist after established artist, from Arcade Fire to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, turning to synthesizers and drum machines to freshen up their sound. It wouldn’t be right to call Joel Ford and Leanne Macomber of Young Ejecta “stars” of this new wave of indie pop, but they’ve both had a certain amount of prosperity as a part of it, both separately as members of Ford & Lopatin and Neon Indian, respectively, and together, with the release of their 2013 debut Dominae. On that album, the duo was known simply as Ejecta.

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