Laurel Halo: Dust – back to the pop music well

Dust
    
Artist: Laurel Halo
Genre: Electronic
Label: Hyperdub

It's always interesting when artists return to the well which influenced them before. Back in 2012, Laurel Halo's Quarantine" debut demonstrated that a rally of experimental electronic broadcasts and her own voice could be hugely enhanced with a compelling pop edge. Other albums since have had Halo advancing and manouevring in a range of abstract directions, but Dust is a striking return to the song-based structures and terrain of that first album. There's a playfulness and a steely purpose to how Halo manipulates r'n'b, house and techno templates and textures to colour such standout tracks like Solar To Sun, Moontalk and Who Won?. Throughout, you can hear Halo and her cast of collaborators – including Julia Holter, Lafawndah, Eli Keszler and Max D – confidently make merry with ideas and notions which combine to be much more than just a reflection of their individual reference points. A record where Halo has her voice back in every sense. twitter.com/LaurelHalo