Stuart Howard aka Lapalux returns with his second EP for Brainfeeder, a further, deeper journey into fractured emotion, tape experiments and mutating states of consciousness. 

“Quartz” is built around a stumbling music box refrain and filtered vocals. “Jaw Jackin’” is perhaps more propulsive but with no drop-off in surface interference. “Forgetting and Learning Again” features vocals from the wonderful Kerry Leatham, showing that Howard, for all the cutting edge sonics, can also fashion a great song. “Strangling You With the Cord” hits harder, a post-Dilla swing to the drum programming and dubbed out vocal samples. The EP is rounded out by “Close Call”, which twists a strange kind of cosmic soul jazz out of its chopped, squashed and stretched elements.

There are few electronic producers out there who are more concerned with the minutiae of surface and texture than Lapalux, and still fewer who understand so well the deep effects that these textures can have upon the listener’s mood. In Lapalux’s productions nothing is left to chance. He makes swooningly beautiful and disorientating music that never sits still for more than a moment.

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