Laurel Halo – Quarantine

Laurel Halo’s early experiments with synth and electronic production yielded some beautiful, understated results. Her first full-length album, for the Hyperdub imprint, foregrounds her voice more squarely on several cuts, while retaining the atmospheric depth and subtle, carefully controlled touch of her earlier efforts.

The monosyllabic titles don’t give much away: Thaw presents a melancholy, Boards Of Canada-esque ambient soundscape with churning, staccato beats lurking behind swirling, muted synths, while Halo’s multi-tracked voice fades in and out ethereally. Years sees Halo’s voice shine like a beacon amidst minimal, almost beatless backing, her strident, yearning voice recalling Matthew Herbert collaborator Dani Siciliano.

The bubbling, Delia Derbyshire-sounding MK Ultra cascades into spooky, detuned vocal harmonics and feedback, while the strange, pulsing LSD freakout of Wow is worthy of early Richard D. James. Elsewhere, more shoegaze-oriented washes of sound predominate, but are never too defiantly abstract. At times it is a challenging listen, but Quarantine shows Laurel Halo's work to be something of a darker, more boundary-pushing twin to the polished dream-pop of Grimes.