It’s rare that a new artist emerges so fully-formed without the usual fanfare to greet him. But such was the case with Lawrence Rothman, a Los Angeles-based electronic singer/songwriter, whose David Lynch-meets-Cindy Sherman music video for debut single “Montauk Fling” (streaming below) set the stage for an explosively entertaining seven song set at NYC’s Glasslands Gallery this past Thursday. (Rothman walks off the stage, through the crowd and out the door, not heard from again that evening.) The theatrical gimmicks are all there — crossdressing, fake blood, smeared makeup — which Rothman matches musically with noir-ish atmospherics and eerily slow rhythms that ache as much as they delight. His combination Nick Cave/David Bowie vocals assure that “Montauk” is no gimmick, rather an absorbing and evocative ode to those fleeting moments of physical connection and the ghosts left in their wake. – Brian Chidester
