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Harriet Brown's "Cryptid" Is the Loch Ness Monster of Funk

Prince is his king and Sade is his queen.

Singer-songwriter-producer Harriet Brown has been keeping LA wavy for a minute now with his purple-hued blend of funk, R&B, and synth pop, which he channels into dynamic one-man shows.

Still, Brown has remained something of an enigma while performing alongside acts like Bibi Bourelly and collaborators Classixx and Toro Y Moi, but he's beginning to let us in on the mystery with release of his debut LP Contact, due out April 21 via Innovative Leisure. The record is a concept album about communication and connection—intentional, accidental, human, and otherwise—steeped in some sensual surrealist vibes. The fingerprints of Prince and Sade—his self-described "king and queen"—are all over it.

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Brown's new single "Cryptid," premiering on Noisey below, sounds like a lost cut beamed down by the Purple One himself from whichever intergalactic realm he's hanging his guitar in these days, and filtered through Teddy Riley's keyboard. It's an abstract little jam about transcendent love (a cryptid is a creature whose existence has yet to be proven, like the Loch Ness Monster or Wendigo) that unfurls from an impish synth bell pattern into fevered keys and guitars. Here's what Brown had to say about it:

"'Cryptid' is about the love of your dreams – the love that, despite having yet to be encountered in what we know to be reality, understands you and feels much more real to you than any other person in this world. You hold onto this love, become obsessed with this love, believing that someday they will take you to the place where you truly belong. Are you uplifted, or are you crazy? We cannot yet say."

Listen to the premiere of Harriet Brown's "Cryptid" and pre-order Contact via Bandcamp below.

All photos by Jason Barbagelott

Andrea Domanick is Noisey's West Coast Editor. Follow her on Twitter.