"Her music is sulfurous and colored; it comes out
directly from the cracks of the American hippie culture to spread a smell of
sulfur everywhere she goes. Something from Burning Man Festival, or as if the M83,
who chose her as the star of their video for Don’t Save Us from the Flames,
made themselves a milkshake while on acids... This girl, daughter, by the way,
of Kevin Haskins, drummer of Bauhaus, also played in bands like blackblack and Pocahaunted,
and went on tour as her latest project with people like Ariel Pink and Os
Mutantes. Curious?" - Vogue Italia
“A Diva Dompé performance is an immutable force of love, like the reverse of a horror show but with the same outcome: Once you see her, you cannot unsee what you’ve witnessed, and you’re overwhelmed by this compulsive need to go deeper. The stage is full of things that emit light, Diva (and that is her real name) being the main one. The more you watch, the more you’re nearly terrorized with the crush you’re getting on her, she is so adorable and strange and yet so calm and deliberate in this somewhat chaotic rainbow TV zoo of leather bodysuit, glitter, leotards, veils, horns, rose petals, a chain, choreographed dance moves, headset…. – VICE
“A Diva Dompé performance is an immutable force of love, like the reverse of a horror show but with the same outcome: Once you see her, you cannot unsee what you’ve witnessed, and you’re overwhelmed by this compulsive need to go deeper. The stage is full of things that emit light, Diva (and that is her real name) being the main one. The more you watch, the more you’re nearly terrorized with the crush you’re getting on her, she is so adorable and strange and yet so calm and deliberate in this somewhat chaotic rainbow TV zoo of leather bodysuit, glitter, leotards, veils, horns, rose petals, a chain, choreographed dance moves, headset…. – VICE
Critical Heights is proud to present the new album from LA’s Diva, the
musical project of Diva Dompé. Moon Moods contains ten
tracks filled with wonder and electro pop enchantment.
Having honed her pop dynamic to a gloriously melodic
precision, Diva plucks inspiration from a myriad of different styles and genres
of music. With post-punk churned up with doo-wop, R&B, hip hop, exotica,
italo disco, psych and new age, the results are dizzyingly captivating. Having
played in bands since she was 13, with the likes of blackblack and Pocahaunted,
she has been working as a solo artist since 2010. Her live shows are a
spectacular blend of music and performance art, with fabulous costume changes
and mesmerising visuals.
The bulk of recording for Moon Moods was
done by Diva herself, seeing her upping the stakes and graduating from her
trusty 8-track on which she wrote the songs, to re-imagine them in the digital
realm. Although preferring to work with a multi-track recorder, she wanted to
clear the songs of the muddiness that comes from tracking solely to tape,
making Moon Moods much clearer and cleaner sounding than her
previous work.
Upcoming shows
09.24 • The Echo w/ Lavender Diamond (Los Angeles,
CA)
10.19 • Public Fiction w/ Chris Cohen (Los
Angeles, CA)
10.26 • Echoplex - "Moon Block Party" w/
Peaking Lights and others (Los Angeles, CA)
This album also sees Diva collaborating more, especially in
the recording process, getting assistance from the likes of her father, Bauhaus drummer
Kevin Haskins, who worked with her on the production of the record.
Vocals were one of the biggest challenges, pushing away from
the safety net of effect-heavy takes to achieve a powerful clarity. For a few
of the songs she enlisted the help of veteran producer and mixer Nick Page as
well as the legendary John Fry (4AD, Mute, Nine Inch Nails).
Guest musicians on the record include sax players Liz
Armstrong and Zumi Rosow on “Smooth Ride.” Kevin Haskins plays auto harp on
“Tear Drops in the Purple Dimension” and there’s also a secret special guest
who played stand-up bass on “Inverted Image.”
Moon Moods is thematically as varied as its
musical inspirations, combining songs about heartache with tunes containing
references to mysticism, magic and the occult. A few of the tracks follow
Diva’s spiritual journey: coming to terms with uniting her life on earth with
the otherworldly and supernatural, but with Smooth Ride she realises that we
are all on our way to harmonizing the seemingly disparate into one paradise.
Having started her career so young, Diva has truly become
ensconced in LA’s varied music scene. She started out playing bass guitar in
various bands, although she played drums in her high school band You Are Young
Rao. When she was 17, she started blackblack with her sister
Lola and current Phantom Planet guitarist Alex Greenwald. With
Diva’s songs sounding like the Shaggs and Marine Girls, their teenage psych pop
punk was about dream worlds, angst and love. Diva then went on to play bass for Pocahaunted for
a year or two during their psych funk phase.
She left Pocahanted to focus on her solo music, which she
had been making throughout her life. She has also collaborated with the likes
of LA Ladies Choir (a fluctuating groups of women who sing
together) and BABES (a group of ladies who get together to
create improvised experimental music to channel goddess energy). She was also
involved with the recent Sun Araw and M. Geddes
Gengras Meet The Congos project.
“a looping, psychedelic, big warm cauldron of molten nectar
noise? Diva’s trippy grooves evoke a lighter, less masculine Sun Araw.” Drowned
in Sound 8/10
“Musically and thematically, the record is a sensual,
otherworldly trip that goes perfectly with her live set, balancing morphing
visuals and frequent costume changes. Moon Moods is the sound of Diva finally
making a path for herself, and a killer one at that.” – Ad Hoc
02. Cyborg Sweetie
03. Uncoiled
04. Inverted Image
05. Smooth Ride
06. Teardrops In Th e Pur ple Dimension
07. Feline Divine
08. Moon Moods
09. Lonely Drive
10. Avocado Afternoon
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