A deeply soulful tribute to love, loss and New York’s ever changing nightlife, ‘Love Louder’ sees Nomi Ruiz and Eli Escobar craft a house LP that’s as emotionally resonant as it is dancefloor ready.
When two seasoned New York originals link up, you expect sparks. But Love Louder, the long-awaited debut LP from vocalist Nomi Ruiz and house music craftsman Eli Escobar, offers more than just a fireworks display of club heaters. It’s a raw and beautifully rendered tribute to love, loss and the dancefloors that shaped them both.
These two first collided back in 2011 with Desire, a track that already hinted at their potential for chemistry far beyond the average producer meets vocalist formula. Fast forward over a decade and Love Louder feels like the emotional culmination of years spent navigating clubs, relationships and grief in the ever-evolving pressure cooker that is New York City.
Eli’s production is consistently rich and emotionally intelligent. On Heathens and Full Fantasy, he channels that classic NYC sweatbox energy, full of funk-drenched percussion and simmering grooves. But this isn’t just music for peak-time poses. It’s soaked in soul and sadness too.
The title track opens the album with a stunning homage to Donny Hathaway, setting a deeply personal tone. Ruiz’s voice carries every syllable with the weight of experience, threading heartbreak and hope into a single line. This is house music with heart, where vulnerability replaces bravado.
Go Be Gone is arguably the album’s most gut-wrenching moment. A meditation on letting go and moving forward, it captures that all too familiar ache when the party’s over and the city’s lights feel just a little colder. It’s not hard to feel the ghost of DJ BluJemz in the mix, his memory lingering over the album like a late-night echo.
Escobar’s recent opening of Gabriela, a Brooklyn club named in memory of a friend lost during the pandemic, mirrors the record’s spirit. This is not just a soundtrack to mourning. It is a call to remember, to celebrate, to love louder despite it all.
Ruiz and Escobar don’t just reminisce about New York’s fading nightlife. They fight for it. Every track feels like an offering to the city that raised them, a candle in the window for anyone still searching for connection under a disco ball.
Love Louder is an album that dances through the pain. It’s soulful, honest and deeply rooted in a city that never stops changing. In the hands of these two, house music becomes a balm, a weapon and a love letter all at once.
Essential listening for: late-night subway dreamers, dancefloor romantics, and shoe gazers. Pre order here.
