Laurel Halo

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.)

currently in absolute stitches at how terrible this is

lex otm

found this album well-listenable, and was compelled to purchase it after a month of getting familiar w/it.

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.

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

"nerve" got that warm, bendy, boards-y, christ.-y interlude thing going on, too. blissed out sounds throughout this thing.

this record feels like she's been listening to the latest prefuse 73 pretty much non-stop, or maybe that's just me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABCgiQYSEM4

i really like "carcass" tho.

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.”

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.

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.

found this album well-listenable, and was compelled to purchase it after a month of getting familiar w/it.

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.

Enjoying this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVjuwcY_iPQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icQreafuvYw

^ this is fantastic, how did I miss it before now?

press play if you want avant garde house piano

NYMAN HOUSE

I want myself some Nyman House, yes please.

Love that track.

The new EP is excellent throughout

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/

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.

ayo new one streaming on pforks:
http://pitchfork.com/advance/264-chance-of-rain/

http://www.dummymag.com/features/laurel-halo-interview?utm_content=buffera260f&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

"It sounds like a bunch of MP3s were dumped into a vat of acid and they’re all screaming in pain.”

I'm finding this one a bit difficult to grasp. I've tried a couple of times, but so far just keep waiting for it to be over.

http://thewire.co.uk/img/scale/460/561/2013/10/15/wire357.jpg

not sure how i feel about all of this yet (it's very hard and unyielding) but "ainnome" is gorgeous in the way hour logic was

title track sounded great on first listen. only had half my attention cos of work but iirc it's the one that incorporates the same jazzy piano that start and finish the album.

Holy fuck this record is dope.

Halo's fast becoming my favourite electronic performer of the moment.

it's like everything I always wanted out of an autechre record but never quite got

It definitely ticks a few of the same boxes - especially on an intellectual/sound-art/deconstructive level although I'd say they approach it from slightly different angles.

I was totally shocked when there was some interview and she said she was nervous about meeting this producer because she admired him so much and the producer was ... Dabrye?

that's not shocking, Dabrye is dope

i'll have to take another listen then

two/three by dabrye is the one (there's an instrumental version of it too if you dislike rappers). the earlier stuff is a bit leaden.

This is brilliant. Keeps all the queasy delirium of Quarantine but manages to be fun and accessible despite the obvious sense of experimentation. I could easily see myself dancing to this in a nightclub, it's very sweaty and jacks hard, but it's also really engaging as a home listen in its weird metallic textures.

otm

I actually worked out to it a couple days ago and it was killer

I've only listened to this a couple of times but it promises to be another fantastic piece of work from Halo.

I could easily see myself dancing to this in a nightclub

Sort of related but I really want to hear something from the Behind the Green Door 12" on a club system, especially "Sex Mission".

Sex Mission is a great ridiculous name for a track as well. On their RA mix earlier this year, Blondes drop it alongside other straight up club tracks and it definitely works.

new album is real lush.. mastering is excellent, sounds great at high volume. could be way off, but some of the percussion recalls the (dry, direct) sound qualities of untilted by autechre, but softer-edged. Not sure if this can be attributed to her use of the Elektron machinedrum, or if autechre even used one on untilted. Wouldn't compare them otherwise, as this rides easier, doesn't feel over-laboured.

I really like how immersive some of her stuff is. Like, I can switch off completely to a Laurel Halo release and just drift away... Sort of the opposite of being really engaged and aware (which I have to do with Autechre), it works best when I'm just nodding off or what have you - it's very visual.

went from tentative to thinking this record rules, at times it sounds like an instrumental underworld record

i like some of the watery hues but the songs on this haven't really grabbed me all that much just yet. or at least i haven't quite grasped them - quite slippery music isn't it?

this record rules. I could go for some more electric piano tho.

really enjoying this.

serendip is amazing, so heavy.

That track 'Throw' with the detuned piano really reminds me of something - I think it's Polygon Window-era Aphex.

Still play Chance of Rain all the time. A truly great record imo.

yeah, i forgot about it because i've been rediscovering Quarantine but it is really good.

I really want a whole record of music that sounds like Dr Echt/Out, so beautiful