Hologram Teen - Pizza Conspiracy (2020)

Absent-mindedly dipping your hand in the pool, you glance down as your skin shimmers lightly in tandem with the pristine blue water. Reaching to grab your cocktail, you find yourself sticking to the sun lounger like melted cheese. Weird. Hang on, you could’ve sworn that baby hippo wasn’t wearing sunglasses the last time you looked over? Whatever, the music sounds incredible right now, and you breathe a deep sigh as the waves wash in.

Out 4th September on Ransom Note Records, Pizza Conspiracy is the second album from Hologram Teen aka Morgane Lhote. Following stints in outfits like The Projects and Garden, Morgane’s first incarnation as a solo artist began five years ago, with Hologram Teen’s superb debut album Between the Funk and the Fear emerging in 2018. Prior to that, she played keyboards in Stereolab during their 1995-2001 imperial phase, with a key role in seminal albums such as Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops. Oh, and a bit of trivia - keen-eyed hip-hop fans might be able to spot Morgane on the cover of Common’s Electric Circus...

The result of an omnivorous musical mind chasing down ideas like so many strands of stringy mozzarella, Pizza Conspiracy is a kaleidoscopic marvel that folds acid-drenched funk and Congolese rumba into astral jazz and Daisy Age hip-hop. At its core, the album acts as a wonky patchwork in the vein of your favourite ‘00s beat tapes - think MF Doom, Donuts, The Avalanches, Madlib’s Beat Konducta series.


While Between the Funk and the Fear doubled down on its “Fabio Frizzi meets Grandmaster Flash” M.O., Pizza Conspiracy is an altogether more playful affair that never loses sight of the party. Constantly darting off on unexpected tangents, the album’s technicolour palette and off-kilter sense of humour set it apart from the pack. I mean c’mon, track titles like ‘Dalston Wizardzz’, ‘Toast, Marmite, & Crack’, and ‘Pharoah For President’ are a pretty good indicator we’re not in Autechre territory. So fire up the oven, grab some dipping sauce from the pepperoni demons, and let the deep crusted conspiracy unfold!