All Love's Legal

The English-born artist Janine Rostron conceived her Planningtorock persona in Berlin in the '90s. Her shows incorporate visuals (masks, video, costumes) into a bewitching brew of electronica, classical music, hip-hop, and whatever else seems to float her way in a creative moment. Her voice naturally evokes artists from Jimmy Somerville (of the great Bronski Beat), Annie Lennox, and her friends and sometimes collaborators The Knife (mostly when she uses electronics to pitch and shift her voice, especially into deep, dark places.) Planningtorock’s music is inarguably unique. Though disco-driven songs like “Living It Out” and the sexually aggressive “I’m Yr Man” allude to dancefloor culture, Rostron manages to avoid dance-music clichés. She dishes out a wide range of beats with some authority and eschews the “electronic music” label by being so much more—cabaret, experimental, and pop elements all color All Love’s Legal. From the opening track, “Doorway”—which could fit neatly in a work by TV on the Radio—it’s clear that the third album by this remarkable artist will be an adventure in listening.