Powerhouse

Powerhouse

Berliner Jam Rostron’s career as Planningtorock has been a steady journey in pursuit of musical freedom and personal liberation. The cabaret stylings of their debut, 2006’s Have It All, have gradually incorporated beats, synths, and playful vocal processing, and Powerhouse—the nonbinary musician’s first post-transition album—is the fullest realization yet of their strikingly original sound. There’s melancholy ambient balladry (“Wounds”), slyly sexy minimalist R&B (“Transome”), and pumping disco-house (“Somethings More Painful Than Others”); the common denominator, beyond Rostron’s eerily re-pitched voice, is the way the personal and the political are joined on the dance floor. On “Beulah Loves Dancing,” Rostron spins a spoken-word narrative about their sister to illustrate the life-saving power of music, while “Non Binary Femme” is a celebration of genderqueer identity set to a storming house beat.

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