Sara Landry has risen in notoriety over the last few years, like getting the first headlining spot for a hardcore techno DJ at Tomorrowland in Belgium and a fantastic Boiler Room performance in 2024, she continues that stride on her debut album, Spiritual Driveby. It invigorates the dance floor with hypnotic intangibles; before you know it, you get lost in the trance of pulse-pounding percussion and unique use of synths, alongside collaborations with techno/electronic DJs/Producers, molding a fantastic debut. Sara Landry starts the process by opening the album with hypnotism, using haunting vocals to engage you in raw techno staccato, where the layers become more pronounced as you go along. It’s a macrocosm of infectious production that fish hooks you on the ear and keeps the sounds circulating, making most vocal performances feel trance-like elevating the euphoria. Spiritual Driveby comes at you like a driveby, it’s so fierce and monstrous you’ll end up remembering its impact. As Landry would sing on “Play With Me,” “Ketamine, Ecstasy/Come on daddy, play with me,” it’s that addicting and it’s only the beginning; come for the vibes, leave with a new DJ to love.
The intense, but enveloping hypnotic opening intrigues you. It lowers the weight of the world, liberating the mind of heavy emotions as you wander through a more free-flowing atmosphere in the clubs as the DJ is in their A-game; in this particular case, it is heart-pulsing hardcore techno. Spiritual Driveby doesn’t mince words when delivering that vibe, especially with the vocals that infuse alongside its surroundings and create something massively addicting. There is less reliance on lyrical songwriting, rather opting to focus on the sound, further showing Landry’s ease with the quick-footed cadences. However, the tracks with lyrical songwriting/vocals are some highs that balance the trance-like wonder the others give. “Heaven” is a smooth mildly poppy thread in the meat of the lyrics, surrounded by great production that lowers some intensity but keeps the high. We hear something similar again, but with rap, on “Pressure,” which features LEGZDINA delivering an insane flow with some quality sexual braggadocio bars. Again it’s heard with the ghostly “Veni Vidi Vidi” that comes later in the tracklist; it continues to offer a great balance, maintaining the desired focus to stay intact. Vocals as a whole are an essential ingredient that holds the mold together.
Vocals are more of an instrument and the album’s heart. Whether clear and performative or not, the emphasis is focused on them; they help much of the pounding percussion escape familiarity since some carry a base template just to expand on them further with bravado. As creative as it can be, that base can feel too hollow for hardcore techno fans, but Landry bolsters the final product into something multidimensional you don’t want it to stop ringing in your ears. I know I felt that way as it kept cycling through, and delivering impactful and memorable heaters like “Play With Me,” “Speaker Freaker,” and “Spiritual Driveby,” where vocals become an X-factor towards their final product, unlike “Funk Em,’ which is too on the nose with its sonic directness. The elevated high-pitch vocals of “On My Mind,” where pitch and tempo play a resounding role from beginning to end. “Prisoner” follows a similar flow, incorporating that dynamism early on as a rooted footing that influences what one expected with the rest of the album, which is something significantly infectious for me. I love how it maneuvers without feeling like a track fully pushes you away from the highs surrounding it.
Like many original albums, by DJs, they have a keen eye toward song transitions. That focus brings seamless energy that allows the free-flowing nature they play at the clubs, where you don’t feel a stop-gap, but you notice song changes with vigor and let it consume you. I’ve noted it, and that is the biggest strength of Spiritual Driveby. Each track finds its identity and you’re left with the finger stuck on the loop because it’s a neverending party. Sara Landry alongside a cast of featured co-producers/DJs who help mold the identity of this hardcore techno banger, like the legendary Mike Dean, who assists on the title track, or Shlømo on “Play With Me” and Nico Moreno on “Because They Want Our Seat.” It’s like having true features, as this brings similar synergy amongst the community because two minds deliver major work. It isn’t always this way, but where there is a shared idea on sound, you can’t help but feel it through the significant highs, and fantastic runs of tracks like the first three and the last four of the album, which ends with the eponymous track.
Sara Landry’s debut is dynamic. It’s safe to say I loved it quite a bit, especially because it’s unlike most electronic albums I gravitate toward. There is a dynamism to the clashing beats creating a monstrous moment that will have anyone feeling loose and loving the vibes. As it goes through its motions, all the significant factors come to light; you hear why the pulsating percussion comes with such ferocity that you get lost in its sauce, and that’s all one can ask from the album since it thematically wants you to feel liberated and free, and it does so with oomph.
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