Hour Logic was one of my favourite moments of 2011
Yeah yeah, damn right! I was a little dismissive of the second half of that record, but I've been re-listening lately and boy, am I a big dummy. Quarantine is supposed to be more song-based and along the lines of the 'King Felix' EP from 2010.
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
I think that, on the basis of last year's releases, I like her sounds and textures a lot more than anything she actually does with them, but will give this a listen.
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
No, that record went really interesting places, the first half was perhaps more immediate, but where it ended up fascinated me, it was like it took you round corners and ran off in different directions.
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 09:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah, excited about this one. That cover is AMAZING.
― MikoMcha, Thursday, 22 March 2012 10:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
OMG I didn't even see the cover. The WTFness... but also... beautiful. Head hurts.
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 10:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
i need to go back to her stuff, i didn't fully get into hour logic before my hard drive died and i lost it.
i LOVE her vocal on games' "strawberry skies"
― lex pretend, Thursday, 22 March 2012 10:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
I think my fave track on Hour Logic was actually the title track, which is, like a 9 minute trance epic that stops mid-stream and goes somewhere else at least twice during the course of the song (...and gets lost in the jetstream)
― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 22 March 2012 10:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
A couple of nice things she's done outside of her two EPs:
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Thursday, 22 March 2012 13:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
finally listened to that widely-praised EP from last year, wondering why I hadn't previously
― mh, Thursday, 22 March 2012 14:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
The first couple of tracks off the new King Felix ep are up on Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/liberationtechnologies
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Tuesday, 3 April 2012 16:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
kind of a weird deployment of the makoto aida pic but stoked
― ogmor, Tuesday, 3 April 2012 22:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
i kno' nooothin of her previous ep's and stuff, but this "quarantine" collection moves me, grooves me, woos me mo' and mo' with every listen.
― t**t, Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
Laurel Halo: Quarantine, streaming here: http://soundcloud.com/factmag/laurel-halo-quarantine/s-3eAaW
Looking forward to checking it out, but have to wait until I get home :(
― MikoMcha, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 16:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
excited!
― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 16:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
Couldn't get that stream to work btw, but it plays alright embedded in this page:
http://www.factmag.com/2012/05/15/stream-quarantine-laurel-halos-debut-album-for-hyperdub/
― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 16:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oh, stream seems to be working fine for me!
Wow, vocals on this are certainly interesting.
― MikoMcha, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 17:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oh no. I'm about ten minutes in, and I don't think I like it that much. It's nowhere near as beat oriented as the stuff on the EPs that I really liked. Maybe I should listen to it on better headphones, but this isn't really doing anything for me so far. I keep hoping it will improve and it just kind of meanders.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 18:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
liveblog: it's picking up at the halfway mark, with that backwards vocal piece into the most rhythmic + interesting track so far
― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 18:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
I'm about halfway in, and I'm getting something which sounds like a choir of crying babies? Not feeling it.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 18:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
this is not even remotely like her eps and remixes but it's... totally awesome?
sort of love the multilayered vocals meeting up with strange, incomplete ambience
― Whiney vs. (BradNelson), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 22:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
Great record. But the vocals are definitely confronting, feels untreated, emotionally direct, at times jarring. Maybe I'll report back have a few more listens.
There's some beautiful moments though: Light + Space, Holoday, Years.
― MikoMcha, Wednesday, 16 May 2012 08:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wow. This is really odd compared to the last EP. I'm getting kinda Nico vibes from it which I never would have expected prior to listening. Interesting.
Has anyone kept without throughout the last fortnight or so and can say how it sounds after ten listens?
― kraudive, Thursday, 24 May 2012 16:42 (11 months ago) Permalink
Gotta say I'm more intrigued to see what this is like live - due to see her at Field Day next week.
― kraudive, Thursday, 24 May 2012 16:48 (11 months ago) Permalink
even better now. weirdly compelled to listen to it.
― Whiney vs. (BradNelson), Thursday, 24 May 2012 17:13 (11 months ago) Permalink
Good. Just listened it through for the first time. I guess she likes The Marble Index, right?
― kraudive, Thursday, 24 May 2012 17:22 (11 months ago) Permalink
yea? never thought of that :/
― t**t, Thursday, 24 May 2012 19:33 (11 months ago) Permalink
Oh, this is exciting! I really liked Hour Logic.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 24 May 2012 19:37 (11 months ago) Permalink
Scared away by the previews on the Hyperdub site, but loving Hour Logic at the mo. Very good for walking around big cities in the rain. Rory Gibb talks a lot about internet living in relation to her work in his quietus review of the new one, tho I find that reading a bit tired and untrue to my experience of her music. May give it a go when I'm feeling more adventurous.
― Mercer Finn, Monday, 28 May 2012 04:06 (11 months ago) Permalink
New one sounds pretty nice.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 28 May 2012 04:34 (11 months ago) Permalink
i liked hour logic but this isn't doing it for me. seems kind of uncomfortably insular.
― The Reverend, Monday, 28 May 2012 07:25 (11 months ago) Permalink
Hour Logic is such a great record. Seems better and better every time I return to it.
― MikoMcha, Monday, 28 May 2012 08:08 (11 months ago) Permalink
Blown away by Quarantine. What a FANTASTIC album this is.
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:28 (11 months ago) Permalink
Seems I've missed some backstory here...
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:47 (11 months ago) Permalink
wow, i'd liked her stuff before but this new album might be the worst music i've heard this year. it's just...gross-sounding
― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Friday, 8 June 2012 18:04 (11 months ago) Permalink
AND it's nothingy
takes a few plays for it to click, but i think it's great
― Zaireeka Badu (NickB), Friday, 8 June 2012 18:06 (11 months ago) Permalink
To be honest, I nearly turned it off halfway through Years - those vocals! - but something about it was so "off", that it held my interest a while longer. As some reviewers have mentioned, I like the stark separation between the murky soup of the music and the untreated rawness of the vocals. Only played it twice - once late at night, when it stopped me going to bed, and once mid-morning, when it stopped me getting any work done. Arrestingly original.
― mike t-diva, Saturday, 9 June 2012 08:56 (11 months ago) Permalink
I've not really found her previous records to be that interesting so the fact this is proving so divisive is kinda intriguing.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 9 June 2012 09:30 (11 months ago) Permalink
To be honest, I nearly turned it off halfway through Years - those vocals!
i nearly tweeted at that point "is there ANY point in me continuing with this piece of shit" but i soldiered on and it got no better. seriously those vocals are unlistenable and the music is completely insubstantial, in a vaguely queasy out-of-tune way. and has she put any thought into the structure of any track> it seems completely directionless and random.
i don't really think there's a separation b/w the vox and the music, nothing of consequence happens it either, and it doesn't happen in a horrible-sounding way.
― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Saturday, 9 June 2012 10:24 (11 months ago) Permalink
it's definitely the worst album i've sat all the way through this year.
― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Saturday, 9 June 2012 10:25 (11 months ago) Permalink
I feel like I'm going to have to give it another cursory listen if/when it turns up on Spotify but this album really was one of the biggest disappointments of the year so far.
And in a year of so many solid releases (SVIIB! Grimes! Dawn Richard! I'm hoping I get to add Cooly G! to this list, Coldplay cover or no) the idea of having to put time and effort into something I found so initially ... revolting (not even in the sense of gross, in the sense of, my ears revolted against having to hear it) just doesn't seem particularly like a good way of spending my time.
― Coolyplay G (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Saturday, 9 June 2012 11:04 (11 months ago) Permalink
I definitely can relate, but it's strange since it also feels calculated and intentional.
― MikoMcha, Saturday, 9 June 2012 11:07 (11 months ago) Permalink
Oh, I'm sure that it is! I just don't want to put it in mine ears.
― Coolyplay G (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Saturday, 9 June 2012 11:08 (11 months ago) Permalink
it definitely seems calculated and deliberate - i LOVE halo's vox on games' "strawberry skies" so it's not like this is all she can do with her voice
― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Saturday, 9 June 2012 11:29 (11 months ago) Permalink
which makes it worse, i almost feel offended that she expects people to accept work this shoddy
― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Saturday, 9 June 2012 11:31 (11 months ago) Permalink
I'm only three songs in but I'm finding something somewhat beguiling in all of this, like her vocals are in tune until such point as she decides she wants them not to be, but I'm not sure that's necessarily interesting in itself and I've no idea whether or not the album in general will hold up once the initial weirdness factor has worn off.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 9 June 2012 12:00 (11 months ago) Permalink
I should say disorientation rather than weirdness, it seems to be intentionally disorienting.
Airy and nothing seems to be the default choice for electronic-leaning indie vocalist types this year and I'm not sure I need another record in that vein.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 9 June 2012 12:01 (11 months ago) Permalink
Wanting to go back to this less and less and less. Shame, b/c after Hour Logic I was really looking fwd to this album. 'Strawberry Skies' is magical as well.
― Mercer Finn, Saturday, 9 June 2012 12:20 (11 months ago) Permalink
xp re "airy and nothing"... absolutely, and it's a style which usually leaves me cold (at best) or infuriates me (at worst)... but there's something else going on here which, to my ears, rises above all of that. (This year's other prime example of "an album I rate in a genre I hate": Beach House - Bloom.)
― mike t-diva, Sunday, 10 June 2012 08:59 (11 months ago) Permalink
currently in absolute stitches at how terrible this is
lex otm
― r|t|c, Friday, 6 July 2012 15:09 (10 months ago) Permalink
found this album well-listenable, and was compelled to purchase it after a month of getting familiar w/it.
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Friday, 6 July 2012 15:42 (10 months ago) Permalink
Don't know that they're really comparable, but quarantine feels like oneohtrix point never's latest direction (replica), though quarantine is catchier. Maybe that's a stretch, and maybe her vocals mar it but on the whole it works. Don't think it "nothingy" at all, in fact it's well-crafted and cohesive. Liked the bit (in some interview, pitchfork?) about her trying out reverbed-out vocals at first and then just going w/them dry/grating instead. Maybe just high, and haven't listened to hour logic yet. "carcass" got a neat mbv-interlude vibe to it.
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Friday, 13 July 2012 02:33 (10 months ago) Permalink
meant to say that i couldn't get into replica at all, where this keeps compelling to replay. whoa, "tumor" is kinda hard to stomach, but then that welcome, blissed-out piano chord (morcom) follows up on it
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Friday, 13 July 2012 02:39 (10 months ago) Permalink
"nerve" got that warm, bendy, boards-y, christ.-y interlude thing going on, too. blissed out sounds throughout this thing.
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Friday, 13 July 2012 02:43 (10 months ago) Permalink
this record feels like she's been listening to the latest prefuse 73 pretty much non-stop, or maybe that's just me.
― cock chirea, Friday, 13 July 2012 04:03 (10 months ago) Permalink
i really like "carcass" tho.
― cock chirea, Friday, 13 July 2012 04:04 (10 months ago) Permalink
Read an interview with her in Stool Pigeon yesterday. Couple of quotes:
“When I was making this record, I was thinking a lot about isolation, so it always conjured these images of being in an anechoic chamber or a vacuum, or inside some pressurised tank. Which led to aeroplanes and lapping up recycled air, and the toxicity of office places or schools, where disease is just cycling around the air ducts.”
And:
“I wanted to make the vocal sound inhuman, while obviously coming from a human place. Just kind of stripped bare and ugly, with all of its qualities and all of its flaws. That cognitive dissonance between the really placid, peaceful, enveloping, evolving synthetic textures, with this kind of cutting vocal, it creates a nice dynamic.”
― mike t-diva, Friday, 13 July 2012 06:45 (10 months ago) Permalink
can't deny the similarities to that prefuse 73 youtube, but the prefuse track sounds muddled, where quarantine has a sort of polished humidity and conciseness to it. opening track (bassline) on quarantine always suggests "captain of her heart" in my head.
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 23:26 (9 months ago) Permalink
I'm not completely sold on Laurel's new vocal approach, but it's an interesting idea - daring, original, maybe not "pleasant" to listen to though. I'm going to dare to draw comparisons with the Farrah Abraham album - not that they're coming from the same direction or even same place on the map at all - but the way that vocals can be used in such bizarre ways, highlighting their ugliness. In the case of Farrah, an effect has been applied to either disguise or embellish an amateurish vocal while having the opposite effect, of leaving it fractured, strangulated, barely recognisable as human. Conversely, Laurel purposefully left her own vocals completely untreated and the effect (to our reverb/compression attenuated ears) is just as jarring. Two sides of two different coins I guess.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Monday, 14 January 2013 12:10 (4 months ago) Permalink
still agree with this comment.
I keep coming back to this album, the vocal style is no different from a lot of Bjork stuff from the Volta era.
― my opinionation (Hamildan), Monday, 14 January 2013 14:52 (4 months ago) Permalink
Enjoying this:
― MikoMcha, Sunday, 21 April 2013 11:34 (1 month ago) Permalink
^ this is fantastic, how did I miss it before now?
― dschinghis kraan (NickB), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 12:29 (1 week ago) Permalink
press play if you want avant garde house piano
― dschinghis kraan (NickB), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 12:33 (1 week ago) Permalink
NYMAN HOUSE
― ogmor, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 21:09 (1 week ago) Permalink
I want myself some Nyman House, yes please.
― kraudive, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 22:55 (1 week ago) Permalink
Love that track.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 23:26 (1 week ago) Permalink
The new EP is excellent throughout
― Number None, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 23:27 (1 week ago) Permalink
Oh, there's some background on the piano in this (excellent) Spin article:
http://www.spin.com/articles/laurel-halo-talks-turbulence-techno-and-her-moving-new-hyperdub-ep/
― dschinghis kraan (NickB), Thursday, 16 May 2013 10:07 (6 days ago) Permalink
How explicit a "piano house" reference are the pianos in "Throw" meant to be?Those pianos were recorded in London. I was recording in this studio for a few days, and they brought in a piano in the middle of the second day of recording. It was this janky old upright piano and it had just been moved, so it was super out of tune. Obviously I saw this out-of-tune, watery, evil-sounding piano, and I was like, "Fuck, I have to jam on that for a bit!" So I sat down to play at the piano, and it was really difficult, actually. Because it was so out of tune, all of the known harmonic spatial relationships were completely gone. A G was somewhere between a B-flat and a B, like a quarter-tone up from B, but it also had a harmonic that sounded like an F. One key sounded like it was a tritone. It was really strange! So I was just trying to find these chords, and it was a really interesting exercise, because it took me a while. I grew up playing piano, and it's easy for you to get into these old habits, like I always do this one chord progression, I always do this thing, or I always do that thing. So it was cool playing on this out-of-tune piano, because it helped me find these chords that I probably wouldn't be able to make on a perfectly in-tune piano.Piano tracks are fucking amazing, obviously. So I was happy to be able to make a piano track with a very mean, evil piano. It's pretty incongruous with the traditional notion of these elated, anthemic, uplifting piano sounds. I mean, sinister piano has been done before, this is not a revelation of any kind.
Those pianos were recorded in London. I was recording in this studio for a few days, and they brought in a piano in the middle of the second day of recording. It was this janky old upright piano and it had just been moved, so it was super out of tune. Obviously I saw this out-of-tune, watery, evil-sounding piano, and I was like, "Fuck, I have to jam on that for a bit!" So I sat down to play at the piano, and it was really difficult, actually. Because it was so out of tune, all of the known harmonic spatial relationships were completely gone. A G was somewhere between a B-flat and a B, like a quarter-tone up from B, but it also had a harmonic that sounded like an F. One key sounded like it was a tritone. It was really strange! So I was just trying to find these chords, and it was a really interesting exercise, because it took me a while. I grew up playing piano, and it's easy for you to get into these old habits, like I always do this one chord progression, I always do this thing, or I always do that thing. So it was cool playing on this out-of-tune piano, because it helped me find these chords that I probably wouldn't be able to make on a perfectly in-tune piano.
Piano tracks are fucking amazing, obviously. So I was happy to be able to make a piano track with a very mean, evil piano. It's pretty incongruous with the traditional notion of these elated, anthemic, uplifting piano sounds. I mean, sinister piano has been done before, this is not a revelation of any kind.
― dschinghis kraan (NickB), Thursday, 16 May 2013 10:08 (6 days ago) Permalink