Bleep

Experimental techno producer Laurel Halo makes her formidable return with a double EP on Honest Jon’s Records. In Situ is her first release for the iconic London label, following her two grandiose albums on Hyperdub — 2012’s Quarantine and 2013’s Chance of Rain. It’s the latter that tricked us into thinking the scattered percussive elements of ‘Situation’ or ‘Shake’ could be erupting into hypertensive hardware techno any second, when in fact, these eight soundscapes are a much more introvert affair. Laurel Halo has refined her approach of confounding a genre that is obsessed with steady rhythms like no other: she breaches the structured by inflicting careful doses of abstraction, laying out her ideas like a fragmented mind map with no apparent audible hierarchy. But listen closely and ‘Leaves’ will turn into a jazz drum solo, uncover the underlying melodies arising from the sub frequencies throughout, the shy synths hiding on ‘Nebenwirkungen’ or ‘Shake’, ‘Focus I’ on the Fender Rhodes 7th chords, and you’ll unlock the key.