With Chance of Rain, her second album release on Hyperdub Records, Michigan born producer Laurel Halo heads back towards the interzone between avant-improv and beat based synth tunes often felt across her early EP releases on Hippos In Tanks and NNA Records.
Made up of hypnotic long-form club music and a few short cinematic interlude sketches, Chance of Rain sees her juxtaposing motifs drawn from techno, club music, grime and early dubstep with an environmental ambience which recalls the eroded futurism and waking dreamscapes so artfully captured by the likes of Hype Williams, James Ferraro, Sand Circles and LX Sweat.
Out of the nine songs included, perhaps the most remarkable (and the most sinister) is 'Thrax', an explosive display of maximalist sonic claustrophobia. Elsewhere on 'Oneiroib', Halo takes her time, letting complex interlocked clockwork rhythms gradually shifts into an overpopulated digital jungle of sound. Following 'Oneiroib', with 'Serendip' Halo matches delayed blips and beeps with monolithic blown out kick drums, letting a sea of synthesiser drones lap against them.
Richly physical, Chance of Rain is a record best felt as much as heard. Listened to at appropriate volume everything else washes away, leaving the listener completely immersed in the moment.
