LAUREL HALO レコード& CD

Review: Laurel Halo has always forged her own distinctive path from one project to the next, at times toying with the structures of electronic music and at others heading in a more classically-trained, minimalist direction. As such, it's no surprise that her new album Atlas is both unpredictable in its style, and utterly magnificent with it. Playing out as 'a suite of sensual ambient jazz collages', Halo captures something of the ghostly, barely there atmosphere of The Caretaker but replaces the cracked sadness with cosy, comforting mood lurking in the middle distance. It's a hazy, sleepy Sunday afternoon experience with extravagant detail and intention folded elegantly into gorgeously understated music, as compelling as we've come to expect from a standout maverick.

Review: Given her stratospheric rise in recent years, it's something of a surprise to find Dust is Laurel Halo's first album since 2013. It's the Michigan native's third full-length excursion and was apparently recorded over a two-year period at the EMPAC performing arts centre in upstate New York. Interestingly, it's even more difficult to pigeonhole than her previous sets, with Halo and collaborators - including Lafawandah, Michael Salu, Maxmillion Dunbar and experimental percussionist Eli Keszler - gleefully fusing elements of wonky electronica, skewed R&B, drowsy synth-pop, neo-classical, humid Balearica, creepy jazz and off-kilter ambience. In other words, it's a hugely vibrant and entertaining set that's more than worthy of your hard-earned cash.

Review: Laurel Halo is back, presenting her unique take on electronic music once again on her first full length since 2012's Quarantine on Hyperdub. Unlike her previous efforts there are no vocals on this album, marking a definite change in direction. There's undeniably a much dirtier analogue aesthetic smeared across the tracks of this album. "Situation" and "Drift" for instance are are tough UK bass influenced workouts with an attitude, while "Nebenwirkungen" and "Nah" take on a more claustrophobic and paranoid aesthetic, in all their freeform and self-liberating glory. Overall the album's withdrawn and at times uncompromising stance is what makes it so compelling.

Review: To say that Lauren Halo's peculiar brand of organic-electronic fusion is "acclaimed" would be an understatement. Her 2012 sophomore set, Quarantine, as named as The Wire's album of the year. Here, the Ann Arbor raised producer continues to dazzle with another off-kilter selection of curious compositions. Veering from tipsy, near ambient soundscapes (see the unruly "Serendip" and psychedelic "Melt") to clattering percussion jams ("Oneiroi"), via deep techno ("Chance of Rain") and blissful musical simplicity (the piano lament of "Out" and beatless tropical jazz of "Dr Echt"), Chance of Rain is every bit as enthralling, unusual and inspiring as its' predececcor. That's high praise indeed.

Review: Although she's offered up plenty of high-grade DJ mixes in the past, this volume in the "DJ Kicks" series marks Laurel Halo's first commercially available mix-up. The sometime Hyperdub producer has dutifully delivered something rather special, somehow joining the dots between 29 diverse and disparate cuts in the manner of a true turntable maestro. Beginning with the melodious experimentalism of her own "Public Art", Halo giddily charges between mutant industrial funk (Stallone The Reducer, Final Cut), thrusting electronic disco (Red Axes), deep techno (Parris), mind-altering acid-style intensity (Rrose), stomping, sweat-soaked peak-time techno (Machinewoman, FIT Siegel), polyrhythmic bass music (Facta, one of her Livity Sound collabs with Hodge) and an impressive array of cuts that defy easy categorization. The resultant all-action mix is nothing less than stunning.