Records for days at the moment, too much goodness to cover properly. Licking Mirrors on Cerberus Future Technologies, Battles on Warp, Jamal Moss as Hieroglyphic Being and I.B.M.,Russell Haswell reaching back and new Oneohtrix Point Never are a few of the names that’ve delivered mind-blowing full lengths recently.
But one thing we’re proper hyped out is the new Laurel Halo. For me it started with Antennaon NNA Tapes in 2011, which led us to rinse her Hyperdub12″ releases and the QuarantineLP
that followed. And then for some strange reason she dropped off our radar, only to come back in stunning form this month with a release on Honest Jon’s.
In Situ is everything we’d hope for and more. Unpredictably rough and futuristic at the same time, it’s eight cuts of melancholy techno that takes you to another place.
There’s no wasted space on the LP or within the tracks themselves. Halo’s refusal to repeat ideas only makes it more impressive that the tracks are sonically threaded together in the way they are. Sometimes driven by synth, sometimes by a broken beat or field recordings and only occasionally (possibly once) settling in to a club-focussed deep and dubby techno structure.
‘Leaves’ is a definite highlight, blending broken jazz cymbals with a UK garage kit and video game synths, creating some sort of frantic illusion that you’re moving much faster than you really are. Though in reality it’s hard to shout about one part of this double EP pack as every cut on here is a stand-out for different reasons; like we said no wasted space, just one of the best plates of the year.
Two tracks to preview below, and big up Honest Jon’s Records for a crazy good release schedule as always.
via Honest Jons
Spherical collections of stars form around black holes in situ; that is, locally to their cosmic neighbourhoods. It is said that future space colonization will rely on sourcing supplies in situ. Construction in situ uses raw materials at the site: colossal sculptures such as Naqsh-e Rustam, the Leshan Giant Buddha and Mount Rushmore were built in this fashion.
Wild, organic machine grooves, with a mind’s eye on naked treetops and an early sunset. Melody breathes out from dubwise fx, percussion by turns sinewy and floating, sub blasts and stripped synth arrangements. Keys on air.
Spacious, witty, melancholic, deadly.