Chance Of Rain
If you’re thrown off by artists who zig when they’re expected to zag, you may be a bit taken aback by *Chance of Rain*. Halo’s first full-length release, 2012\'s *Quarantine*, turned heads by combining ambient-flavored electronics with a more conventional songwriting sensibility, as well as the Brooklynite’s own haunting vocals. So one might assume she\'d take a similar approach on the follow-up. Instead, Halo has eschewed vocals almost entirely on her second album, letting her fingers do the talking. Her deftness at layering electronics in an artfully atmospheric way is undiminished, but these tracks aren’t all about ambient synthscapes. “Dr Echt” revolves around what sounds like a heavily processed electric piano, while the closing track, “-Out,” is an old-school acoustic piano piece. Halo brings some beats to the party too, firing up cuts like “Oneiroi\" and the title tune with propulsive polyrhythms.
Electronic musican Laurel Halo's releases since 2012's Quarantine can be read as a reaction to that album and its reception, as she has steadily retreated from that album's vocally oriented post-pop into the harsh instrumental strictures of techno. Her second album, the dynamic, bracing Chance of Rain, continues this transition.
A fine album that walks along the boundaries of the communal experiences to be found in dance music and the introspection of ambient electronica.
During the first half of 2013, Laurel Halo followed Quarantine, a polarizing album placed at number one on The Wire's releases of the year feature for 2012, with her second and third releases for Hyperdub.
It ends as it starts, book-ended by the brief electric piano meanderings of the opening Dr. Echt, and the closing Out. Mini-overture and coda, they house the body of this beguiling second album from the Michigan producer. A blitzkrieg of twitchy, pulsing beats, its lack of clutter gives it space to breathe. With little in the way of melody, bar the near-euphoria of Ainnome, Chance of Rain is dominated by a battery of skittering rhythms.
Album review: Clash rates 'Chance Of Rain', the new album from US producer Laurel Halo, out via Hyperdub