At this point, Dawn Richard — known these days as D∆WN — is simply beyond pop music. That's not an easy place to be — her legitimately future-seeking sound is at once everything that's part of dance and R&B music and everything that isn't yet. She's already on the next level while everyone else catches up.

Originally released as a single in January, "Not Above That" comes from the forthcoming album RED*emp*tion a.k.a. The Red Era, closing out a trilogy that started with 2013's Goldenheart. Machinedrum is a producer sympathetic to the side of D∆WN that breaks the neon dance-floor into fractals; at the same time, she pulses heart into his sharp, clipped synths. "I want it all" becomes a mantra, her breathy voice glitched and rearranged in blocks of sound that dart in and out of beats.

Monty Marsh directs this video for "Not Above That," which first appeared in a different version as a virtual reality experience where D∆WN was our holographic captain on a club spaceship. (There's also a lyric video with stunning 3D visuals.) The VR is worth watching if you have the gear and know-how, but here the visuals have been turned into an abstract story, a dance of cosmic desire. D∆WN plays several characters, including a galactic goddess made of stardust and a leather-clad queen surrounded by techno-topographic mountains. But "Not Above That" always comes back to the club, as it is a song that was always meant for that space — which takes on new meaning in light of the recent events in Orlando.

"It's being unapologetic about the dance, [it] is a blatant stance in celebrating who you are," D∆WN tells NPR. "Even before Orlando, I stated The Red Era would be about dancing in the beauty of self, that whatever or whoever you are, be proud of it — that this would be our redemption. To go into this era hands up and heads high."

The "Not Above That" single is available now.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit NPR.

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