Thursday 3 February 2011

Halls - New Waves

Halls produce blissed-out, sombre and minimal electronica that hints at the ambient works of Aphex Twin or possibly James Blake with all the dubstep influence stripped away; it’s the stuff of mellow beauty. These subtly spacious tracks don’t feel the need to layer any more than is necessary, allowing each piece to float in and out of consciousness. Occasionally, such as on Kaleidoscope, a snatch of ghostly half-awake vocal will drift in, but in the main this is music that rejects all rock ‘n’ roll traditions –there are no ‘songs’, nothing to ‘sing-a-long’, just a gorgeously foggy soundtrack coloured and freeze-framed with electronic textures. Halls are like the softer, more chilled cousin of another laptop knob twiddling wonder-boy - Gold Panda - which probably explains why his remix work also includes one of Derwin's tracks - Marriage - you can download that below.

Halls is the solo project of one Samuel Howard from South London, we know no more than that – but then how important is a back story except to music journalists to give them something to write about when they haven’t actually got anything else to say? You can access more Halls material than the ones streaming below from his Bandcamp here.

Chakra Drums by Halls

Kaleidoscope by Halls

Gold Panda - Marriage (Halls Remix) by Halls

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