Who is Doss? The question has popped up repeatedly on internet communities devoted to leftfield club music, but she’s never released much personal information. When she announced 4 New Hit Songs, her first new EP in over seven years, the news read, simply, “It’s the music.” What is known about the New York/Baltimore producer and songwriter is that over the past decade she has occasionally worked as a DJ, released an EP (her 2014 self-titled debut), and made a few remixes. At first glance, 4 New Hit Songs doesn’t offer much more information; its title seems intentionally generic, and its singles were accompanied only by cheekily opaque slogans. Yet, in its own way, 4 New Hit Songs is revealing—an invitation to join Doss as she experiences life’s tribulations and the rapturous realizations that come from navigating hard times.
Despite the fogginess surrounding these songs, they’re clearly Doss’ most personal and intimate to date. 4 New Hit Songs is built with the same forward-thinking sounds that filled her debut: gleaming trance refractions, shards of bubblegum house, and delicate wisps of shoegaze. And though her voice appeared on some of her previous songs, it never rang as clearly or resonated as deeply as it does here. The candy-coated club track “Look” sounds a little like Doss’ old friends and associates at PC Music—but even when it’s buoyant and bright, it feels insular and brooding, too. Over techno drum programming, she mutters about isolation and abandonment, about feeling watched and alone. She repeats the words “on my own” over and over until they begin to sound anxious, the insistence lending weight to a track that might otherwise have floated away with dancefloor euphoria.
Part of the joy of 4 New Hit Songs is in just how much emotion it packs into its few tracks. “Puppy”—a song about rekindling feelings with a lost love—feels desperate yet hopeful, drifting through stormy rave beats as Doss sings in the distance about “holding on.” The title is a reference to a nickname given to her by an ex, a personal touch that mirrors the yearning in her voice. “Strawberry” too is misty and longing, built around an instrumental as breezy and blunted as Slowdive’s more electronic experiments, but it’s also comforting. Its chorus—“maybe this song won’t leave you”—underscores Doss’ slogan: “It’s the music.” In a world that feels overwhelming, maybe you don’t need more than a song to keep you company.
Veering between distance and intimacy, dreamy introspection and extroverted club ecstasy, Doss’ style of dance music is both veiled and vulnerable. And though she holds back on concrete details, the songs are enough—they feel intimate and empathetic, a window into her head from across a crowded dancefloor. It’s a feeling that echoes one of the most enduring appeals of the rave, a place where, for a moment, you can share the same energy as a room full of strangers. You may not know a thing about their lives outside the club, but for the length of a track, you’re all in motion together. This is the feeling 4 New Hit Songs captures vividly.
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