Exclusive EP premiere of ‘Shooting Stars’ by Woolfy, out December 3rd via Ritual Release. The EP features stunning remixes of the title track ‘Shooting Stars’ by Django Django and Turbotito, each with their own spin on the track

There’s a sly hint of predestiny in Simon James aka Woolfy’s backstory. When he was 8 and his music industry dad moved the family from London to LA, they initially crashed at Giorgio Moroder’s place. Today Woolfy is known around the world as an indie-disco troubadour with an unmistakable English-inflected vocal delivery, usually caught somewhere between drawl and “mesmerizing falsetto”.

Woolfy’s earliest outings were on Rong Music starting in 2005, before being signed to James Murphy’s legendary indie dance stable, DFA, for two more EPs and a 2009 long-player. This period yielded successes such as the perennial favorite ‘Odyssey’, the lovelorn ‘Looking Glass’, and ‘Oh Missy’, which drew a comparison to “late-70s pop-disco Stones”. Meanwhile, a series of full-length albums and singles as one half of Woolfy vs Projections (now simply Projections) on Permanent Vacation, have seen him firmly cemented as a leading voice in both the modern disco and Balearic “revivals”. Recent collaborations such as with Lexx on summer digi-reggae jam ‘Too Hot ‘(Phantom Island, 2019) and ‘Coyote on the Return To Life’ EP (Is It Balearic, 2021) continue the trend.

Whereas Projections’ style fuses AOR, cosmic funk, synth pop and afterhours house music, Woolfy’s solo material tends to draw on the influence of the classic pop, indie-rock, shoegaze and new wave that soundtracked James’ musical coming of age in the 80s. Songs such as the runaway success ‘City Lights’ (Future Classic, 2014) reveal a rogue indie-pop sensibility, leading to comparisons such as “Kings Of Convenience jamming with James Murphy on the beach”. Having long traded Los Angeles for the sleepy satellite town of Ojai, Woolfy’s solo material for Ritual Release finds him one foot still on the dancefloor, the other in a more personal space and turning towards traditional songwriting. The result is not just his most authentic and creative work to date, but also his most accomplished.

Headline photo: John Alderson

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