Bleep

Lapalux (Stuart Howard) continues to average an LP every two years. After 2013’s Nostalchic, 2015’s Lustmore and 2017’s Ruinism, 2019 now brings us Howard’s latest full-length Amnioverse.

Amnioverse is another set of dynamic and mournfully beautiful electronics, one of those records that manages to be widescreen and intimate all at once. Tracks like ‘Earth’ may be fleshed out by far-reaching atmospherics and big-room beats, but these choices only serve to draw you further in rather than asking you to stand back and admire. It’s an effect that Amnioverse shares with albums like Daniel Avery’s Song For Alpha, Jacques Greene’s Dawn Chorus and Clark’s Death Peak.

There are further similarities to be found in the kind of genres that Lapalux focuses on here. Throughout Amnioverse we see Howard combining the inventive, IDM-tinged productions of his past with a penchant for revivalist rave aesthetics. While the Lilia-featuring ‘Limb To Limb’ exists in a similar soundworld to fellow Brainfeeder signees Iglooghost and TOKiMONSTA, the washed-out breakbeats of a cut like ‘Momentine’ act like second-hand memories of past parties and more innocent times. Amnioverse’s more subdued entries - the swirling, almost Teebs-esque haze of ‘Hellix’, JFDR’s tender R ‘n’ B turn on ‘Thin Air’ - only add to the air of wistful fragility.

Lapalux’s fourth full-length record encourages us to lose ourselves in the Amnioverse.

Photography & Creative Direction by Dan Medhurst Artwork & Set Design by Owen Gildersleeve