By: Ryan Mercer

leroy, status update music

HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “…LIKE WATCHING A ZOMBIE TURN”, “NOTHING LASTS FOREVER (EVERY DETAIL U HAVE EVER TOLD ME)”, “GET UGLY”

GENRE: Dariacore, Hard Dance, Brostep

RIYL: SOPHIE, Ninajirachi, Justice, Underscores, Skrillex, Slayyyter, Snow Strippers 

Leroy is the EDM side project of Jane Remover, best known since 2021 for her work in indietronica, digicore, and alternative R&B. Under the alias, she introduced Dariacore through her 2021 album of the same name and its two sequels. After Grave Robbing (2023), the project was retired until May 2025, when “XO TOUR LIFE” appeared on SoundCloud. One year and 14 singles later, we arrive at status update music.

The record serves as an effective extension of the hard dance sound found on Grave Robbing while also embracing the dense, maximalist production of Revengeseekerz, Jane Remover’s breakout release from last year. The kicks introduced on Grave Robbing remain just as bass-heavy here, but feel punchier and more tonal. Meanwhile, the playful vocal chops and uplifting supersaw chords present on Dariacore 2 are even more pronounced, somehow sounding just as natural and effective now as they did in 2021. The mashup-heavy sample work throughout the album feels like the culmination of the skills Jane developed during her 2023–2024 NTS residency, tying together many defining aspects of the leroy project so far.

Much like Revengeseekerz, status update music is a self-referential collage of everything Jane Remover has explored throughout her career, while also showcasing the hybridity of the genre she pioneered. In Dariacore, sampling is less a tool and more one of the foundations of the genre’s identity. It’s one of the first things you’ll notice, with the album drawing from sources ranging from K-pop and late-2000s recession pop to Janet Jackson, 2hollis, and Addison Rae.

As with her previous leroy releases, Jane is deeply in tune with pop music and frequently uses it as the foundation for raw hardstyle kicks, squelchy brostep growls, and shrieking synth leads. The result sounds fantastic. It’s far removed from the simpler, narrower sound traditionally associated with Dariacore. Here, the soundscape is expanded and densely layered, with nearly every track carving out its own identity—from the crisp electro house of “XO TOUR LLIF3,” to the alternative rock breakdowns on “NOTHING LASTS FOREVER,” to the heavy, off-kilter French electro of “GET UGLY,” and even the dance-pop of “Summer Fling,” a cover of the 2013 song by Melodic Chaotic—it’s the most exhaustive record of the year. Despite its hour-plus runtime, the album remains consistently fresh thanks to its wide genre fusion, inventive sound design, and eclectic sample selection.

It’s difficult to compare status update music—let’s call it SUM—to anything outside of Jane Remover’s own discography. That isn’t to overstate her originality, but there are genuinely sounds here that you likely haven’t heard on any other record and probably won’t hear executed this effectively elsewhere. Looking at another notable EDM release from this year, such as Halo by Tiffany Day, helps illustrate what makes SUM so compelling. Halo succeeds as an electropop record, but it rarely pushes the genre into new territory. It’s somewhat cookie-cutter, albeit a very polished and enjoyable cookie, drawing heavily from the indie sleaze tendencies of The Hellp and the vocal stylings of Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS.

SUM, on the other hand, feels massive and forward-driving within its scene. There isn’t a single bland sound or uninspired drop across the record. Granted, the absence of a central vocalist gives the project more room for experimentation, but even when comparing instrumentals alone, SUM feels far more inventive and distinctive than not only Halo, but much of the mainstream EDM released over the past decade.

Dariacore, or at least the genre as we know it today, arguably shouldn’t even still exist. Jane has retired the project twice: first with a memorial service following the release of Dariacore 3 in 2022, and then again after its unexpected revival with Grave Robbing in 2023. That revival came partly in response to others imitating the sound she had originally pioneered. In the description accompanying Grave Robbing, Jane wrote: “This should explain everything. Remember where you came from. Understand why it’s gone. Her spirit is angry. Back into the grave she goes.”

Following Grave Robbing, the project once again appeared fully laid to rest until two years later, when the single rollout for SUM quietly began. Now, released on the five-year anniversary of Dariacore 1, status update music has brought the project full circle, with Jane Remover fully embracing both the alias and everything it has grown into.

What makes all of this so fascinating is that Dariacore is a genre built almost entirely around the idiosyncrasies of one artist, yet it somehow continues to feel fresh and exciting because of both the evolution of the scene surrounding it and the inherent flexibility of the genre itself. Artists like xaev, ta1lsd0ll, tdstr, and many others continued to bring new sounds to the table, often reiterating on melodies and sample selections from the past and seeing how much juice could be squeezed out of the original Dariacore trilogy and Grave Robbing in leroy’s absence.

All of this context makes status update music feel less like a return and more like a continuation of something that never fully stopped evolving. I think status update music is an outstanding record and one that I highly recommend  not only to fans of dance music, but also to listeners looking to broaden their horizons—I’m sure you’ll recognize a sample or two.

“Jane Remover April 2025 2 (cropped)” by Angel is marked with CC0 1.0.