- If you're expecting more of the deliciously off-kilter grooves and vocal experimentation of Quarantine, Laurel Halo's beautifully melancholic album of last year, then Behind The Green Door may only partly satsfy you. For starters, there's hardly a vocal in earshot. These are raw and freeform productions that draw heavily from UK bass and techno.
"Throw" opens up with what might be a prepared piano, rattling and chinking playfully before giving way to a thunderous bassline. It kicks pretty damn hard. Not that "UHFFO" has a light touch. Far from it—the bass pummels away even more frantically, overwritten by bursts of partly-realised chords and Detroit-like synth swells.
"NOYFB" is a riot, changing pace and direction like a scuttling roach; it's Halo in microcosm, generating and discarding ideas at will. Sci-fi phasers obliterate the itchy, disjointed rhythm of the intro, before a brisk vibraphone motif kicks in. The most unfussy of the quartet, "Sex Mission" combines brutal kicks with hyped techno beats, trickling keys and a spanking, pitched-up groove. Culled and then cultivated from her live set, these tracks have the dance floor in their sights, but with a skewed focus.
Tracklist A1 Throw
A2 UHF F/O
B1 NOYFB
B2 Sex Mission