solar penguin content

Dani Siciliano’s eagerly awaited second album Slappers (2006) combines her distinctive vocal talent with her passion for electronic music and frustration with the lack of positive female role models on the contemporary pop scene. The result is an intimate and playful collection of songs that ask questions about gender politics, the empowerment of women and sex as a commodity. Slappers was written and recorded by Dani in her home studio. The sound sources form part of the album’s narrative and develop themes that Dani started exploring on her debut album Likes… (2004). The recording process involved manipulating her own and other women’s voices as well as recording sounds made on various parts of the female body. Dani grew up in America. She learned the clarinet at an early age and played in orchestras and marching bands. She was also a member of the North Virginia Regional Choir. In the early nineties Dani moved to San Francisco where she made a name for herself as a resident DJ at legendary club, The Endup. In 1998 Dani moved to England and began collaborating with renowned electronic music producer Matthew Herbert. Her distinctive and heavily jazz-influenced vocals can be heard on Herbert’s acclaimed albums Around The House (1998), Bodily Functions (2001), Goodbye Swingtime (2003), Plat Du Jour (2005) and Scale (2006). Dani has been one of the mainstays of Herbert’s live shows, touring extensively and performing at an impressive range of venues and events from small, exclusive clubs in Japan and Paris to the Hollywood Bowl, London’s Barbican Centre, the Sonar Festival in Spain and the Montreux Jazz Festival. As well as recording and touring with Herbert, Dani has also provided vocals for The Soft Pink Truth Out of Step (Minor Threat) (2004) and Brooks’ You, Me & Us (2002) and Wandering (2003). In 2005 Dani remixed former Moloko singer Rosin Murphy’s single If We’re In Love (What Will Be Will Be Mix) (2005). Dani herself has taken an unusual approach to remixes, prefering instead to invite artists including Matmos, Mara Carlyle and Gabriel Olegavich to cover her songs. Dani’s debut album Likes… (2004), which includes a stunning rendition of Nirvana’s Come as you are, was described in The Observer as: “A sophisticated fusion of real instruments, laptop tinkering and breathy, jazz-club crooning”. Time Out called it: “A beguiling fusion of musique concrete and perfect pop”. The Daily Telegraph wrote: “Dani´s voice recalls everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Siouxsie Sioux and musically the electronic and the organic are practically indistinguishable. It’s ancient, it’s modern, it’s relaxing, it’s attitude-filled, it’s dreamy, it’s exciting and it’s impossible to recommend this album too much.” Other projects include an ongoing partnership with French fashion designer Gaspard Yurkievich. Dani has written and recorded original pieces of music for Yurkievich’s fashion shows and has collaborated on two installation pieces, Soiree Nomades (2002) and Cubisim (2003), which explore and challenge the relationship between fashion and performance. She also performed live at Yurkievich’s Live show (2005) and at his Spring/Summer ’06 show It All Tattoos You (2005).