Laurel Halo - Quarantine and King Felix - Spring EP added to 2012 Recommended Albums

King Felix - Spring (EP)

Laurel Halo first caught attention with her 2010 EP King Felix, a name she has revived for her EP Spring, released on Mute's new imprint, Liberation Technologies. Presumably the pseudonym is to clarify the seperation in this release to her Quarantine album, as the lack of omnipresent vocals immediately show. The main track is "Spring 01", a droney synthscape which expands with the complex beat stuttering beneath it, Aphex-style. The other three tracks support it well, in particular "Spring 03", a seven-minute remix of the first track that adds even more pecussion, giving it almost a footwork quality.

Laurel Halo - Quarantine

As with Spring, Quarantine marks another left turn for Laurel Halo. This time her vocals are pushed to the forefront of the mix, and comandeer almost every moment of the album. Her voice sounds clear and powerful, mostly unaffected by effects but often multitracked to sound multi-faceted. She often sings with an urgency The space left is filled with mysterious, fantastic layers of drones, which show the strongest resemblence to her science fiction inspirations out of her discography so far. It does sound like a soundtrack to a movie never made, in the best way possible. Although the beats on the album are subdued they remain as complex as ever, making Hyperdub Records a logical home for the album. Especially as its detachment from the majority of modern music means it sounds like nothing on Earth.

Stream Quarantine below: