Laurel Halo—Possessed

Metahaven’s 2018 documentary Possessed summarised the first steps of our messy divorce from technology. The internet age promised a joyful future delivered by instant, uncensored global communication. But the web has instead tangled us. It's bought itself out, reduced humans to commodities, been hijacked to sow profound worldwide division. Its chatter has become as deafening as it has meaningless. We are reliving the 1970s, a perverse rotting of the previous decade’s utopian values. With Possessed, Laurel Halo provides the soundtrack to this disintegrating future.

Possessed is at its most striking when noisiest. ‘Zeljava’, a lead-heavy and costive mid-point track, lingers long after it’s finished. But even the soundtrack's gentler passages—with Halo stepping back to make space for Metahaven’s visuals—make a very strong impression. Contrasts between the soundtrack’s two extremes are abrupt and jarring. Themes are introduced as flippantly as they are chucked away, and instrumentation is unswervingly eclectic. Possessed is a picture of chaos. A whole comprised of mismatched, conflicting pieces.

If one thing unifies Halo's material here, it’s panic. No matter the form, the content is fear. The solo piano of ‘Rome Theme III’ is a good example; bare and baroque when compared to its electronic peers, but no less defamiliarising. The piece stops and starts in staccato half-phrases—it’s like an animal limping from its predator, sustained by will alone, seconds from collapse. Conversely, ‘Breath’ is an amelodic and ambient piece—but it feels like Angelo Badalamenti soundtracking Hell. One of the few reprieves is ‘Stabat Mater (Except)’. This piano arrangement of a 18th century Pergolesi theme acts in delicate counterpoint to the chaos around it.

It’s remarkable how broad Laurel Halo goes on Possessed; how many tones and techniques she touches on. This soundtrack is ultimately so wild and diverse it feels exhausting. But its dense fury does provide a catharsis, and a comforting sense that we’re all as confused as each other.

Possessed is available for purchase and streaming here.

Words: Andrew O’Keefe

Dean Hurley — Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond

Dean Hurley's Anthology Resource Vol. I, a compiled forty minutes of underscore and menacing sound design, sat oddly in its album format. Originally appearing in David Lynch's revived Twin Peaks, now untethered, tracks felt disjointed, wandering; as labyrinthine, and cavernous with potential readings as the show they lived in.

Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond demystifies things a little — but scatters itself even further; the windborne ash of Vol. I's electrical fire. Still mostly composed of soundtrack snippets (this time from Eddie Alcazar's Perfect), Hurley's work stands now as a more successful whole.

While a clear stickler for detail, Hurley has here taken more of a 'big-picture' approach, unifying the tracks on Vol II with a clear, common theme. It's simple, it's been done before, but it's ripe for exploration: where do we go when we die, when we sleep? Hurley explores the unseen worlds around and above us, atomising his sound in the process.

Long sweeps of beautiful ambience are the air shimmering above Vol. I's boiling tarmac; burning just as hot, but with a dance instead of a stink. This release really shows Hurley's versatility, and stands as a worthy companion to its predecessor.

Anthology Resource Vol. II is available for purchase and streaming here.

Words by Andrew O’Keefe

Coil — The Gay Man’s Guide to Safer Sex

In 2013, pioneering producer Patrick Cowley's pornographic cues were assembled and released under the name School Daze, and met with warm praise. But his work is not a curio or an outlier. Cowley, like a good deal of other pioneers in disco and house music, was in a symbiotic relationship with the broader LGBT community. These genres are arguably inseparable from the queerness that lifted them into the mainstream.

Legendary group Coil, comprised of ex-Throbbing Gristle member Sleazy and late TG mega-fan Jhon Balance, have similarly explored sexuality and sex throughout their career. The Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex is no exception, soundtracking an informational VHS of the same name.

The music on this release was recorded early in Coil's career. As such, it may prove more conventional than some fans expect. It's stuffed with progressive house hallmarks: short female vocal samples, swathed in reverb; bright synthetic strings, arranged in jubilant chord sequences; funky, repetitive basslines — in short, a style which was since adopted by and (poorly) imitated in modern mainstream pornography. Thus, the music naturally carries an intense sexual charge. But it's truly tender and sentimental.

'Exploding Frogs' has the groovy, almost gratingly repetitious approach to jazz as Badalamenti's work on Twin Peaks — full of brushes, snares, clicking fingers; reversed instruments and speech, and dissonant saxophones — but also shares its esoteric mystery and oddball charm.

'Nasa-Arab II' is an aquatic-sounding track, disorientating and polyrhythmic. It's reimagined (or pre-imagined) by sister track 'Nasa-Arab'. Treated, indistinct vocals, hooting owls and a greatly extended runtime all serve to deepen the track's sense of mystery and soften its edges. Easier to pin down, less jittery, but still generous and propulsive. It's a little like Massive Attack's 'Risingson', with an absolutely relentless bass riff that brings the best of trip-hop to mind.

These two tracks are the album's locus. It goes on to reprise both 'Exploding Frogs' and its title track, the former resurrected as 'Omagus Garfungiloops' with added sprinkles of eccentricity. Weird, car-horn honks keep intruding on the song, leaning in and shouting over it. But it's not an unpleasant experience, and certainly refreshes and adds some surprises to the track.

'The Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex Theme' closes this release out. Any changes from its iteration at the album's opening are minimal. But it bookends the other work here so well, and is so catchy in its own right, that it's hard to mind.

If you were in doubt, cast your doubts aside. What could be overlooked as a scoff-worthy oddity contains some of Coil's career-best work.

The Gay Man’s Guide to Safer Sex is available for purchase and streaming here.

Words by Andrew O’Keefe