For the sixth and final film in the Design Matters series with Bang & Olufsen, Berlin-based musician Laurel Halo talks about drawing inspiration from different musical lineages, reacting to the materiality of Berlin and using texture as a challenge. Laurel Halo delivers a deadly instalment for DJ-Kicks with her 29-track sequence of zingers from overlapping zones of the 'floor. With a mercurial yet gritty.
!K7 has tapped Laurel Halo for the 68th edition of the DJ-Kicks mix series.
Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and currently based in Berlin, Halo's woozy and off-kilter production style - which jumps back and forth between vivacious dancefloor jams and delicate, experimental musings - has made the rounds on lauded imprints such as RVNG Intl, Hyperdub, Livity Sound and beyond.
Her 60-minute DJ-Kicks compilation consists of 29-track which includes two new tracks of her own, her recent collaboration with Hodge and a list of adventurous productions from the likes of Blake Baxter, Dario Zenker, Ikonika, Machinewoman, Geoffery Landers, Via Maris and more.
Laurel Halo's DJ-Kicks compilation drops on March 22 via !K7 Records.
Check out the album art and tracklist below.
Read about how Laurel Halo doesn't deal in 'monochromatic macho techno bullshit' here
TRACKLIST:
01 Laurel Halo - Public Art
02 Stallone the Reducer - Always Hate
03 Red Axes - 5 min (feat. CAR)
04 Parris - Puro Rosaceae
05 Rrose - Cricoid Pressure
06 Machinewoman - Just Made Some Jazz Music
07 WCC - Ana
08 FIT Siegel - Pennyrut
09 Yamaoka - Plastic PQ
10 Siete Catorce – Canto
11 Facta - Poliwhirl
12 Laurel Halo & Hodge - The Light Within You
13 Ikonika - Bodied **
14 Griffit Vigo - A.C.I.D (Electronic Gqom Mix)
15 Panda Lassow - Lachowa
16 Dario Zenker - Koraimer Bro
17 Final Cut - Temptation
18 Aos - Violent Light
19 Geoffrey Landers - Brian’s Having a Party
20 Via Maris - Side Effects
21 Laurel Halo - Oneiroi
22 Nick León - Pelican Dub
23 Stefan Ringer - Lust
24 Kirk The Flirt - Loser
25 Laurel Halo - Sweetie
26 Blake Baxter - Funky World (Blake Baxter Remix)
27 Kiki Kudo - Freakey Keke
28 Group A - Ketabali
29 Whitefield Brothers – Ntu
Cameron is Mixmag's Jr. Editor. Follow him on Twitter here
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DJ-Kicks is Laurel Halo's first commercially available mix, but it follows a decade's worth of podcast mixes for various music websites, as well as a background in college radio. Like her music, Halo's mixes incorporate styles from throughout the history of dance music, often leaning toward Detroit techno/electro and U.K. bass culture, but she's also likely to venture into musique concrete and contemporary composition. Halo's DJ-Kicks has a few abstract moments, but it's mainly a steady, headstrong mix, running through nearly 30 tracks in an hour. While never sticking to one sound for long, the mix frequently returns to electro-techno, sometimes of the EBM/industrial persuasion. A track from early, Jeff Mills-era Final Cut surfaces, as well as other Detroit producers such as Stallone the Reducer and FIT Siegel. Halo unearths a lot of gems here, from the trippy, fractured bass music of Siete Catorce to hypnotic, 8-bit-spiked gqom of South African producer Griffit Vigo. The tough, storming electro of Ikonika's exclusive 'Bodied (OG Mix)' is another standout. Halo includes several tracks from throughout her own catalog, ranging from the IDM abrasion of 'Oneiroi' (off 2013's Chance of Rain) to the swift, assuring 'The Light Within You' from her 2018 collaboration with Hodge. 'Sweetie,' a track Halo composed specially for this mix, surprisingly ends up being one of the most straightforward, stripped-down club tracks she's ever made. The mix never seems to have a specific direction in mind; what's more important is the fact that the energy is kept up throughout, as well as the level of anticipation.
Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 01:08 | ||
2 | feat: Stallone the Reducer | 02:20 | |
3 | Niv Arzi / C.A.R. / Dori Sadovnik | feat: Red Axes | 02:09 |
4 | feat: Parris | 02:07 | |
5 | feat: Rrose | 02:49 | |
6 | feat: Machine Woman | 03:00 | |
7 | feat: WCC | 02:03 | |
8 | feat: FIT Siegel | 01:40 | |
9 | feat: Yamaoka | 02:35 | |
10 | feat: Siete Catorce | 01:21 | |
11 | feat: Facta | 01:23 | |
12 | Laurel Halo / Jake Martin | feat: Hodge | 02:43 |
13 | feat: Ikonika | 02:12 | |
14 | feat: Griffit Vigo | 00:42 | |
15 | feat: Panda Lassow | 02:02 | |
16 | feat: Dario Zenker | 02:20 | |
17 | Jeff Mills / Anthony Srock | feat: Final Cut | 03:11 |
18 | feat: Aos | 02:14 | |
19 | feat: Geoffrey Landers | 01:02 | |
20 | feat: Via Maris | 02:36 | |
21 | 01:57 | ||
22 | 01:40 | ||
23 | 02:16 | ||
24 | 01:08 | ||
25 | 03:30 | ||
26 | feat: Blake Baxter | 02:37 | |
27 | feat: Kiki Kudo | 01:10 | |
28 | feat: group A | 02:50 | |
29 | Jan Weissenfeldt / Max Weissenfeldt | feat: Whitefield Brothers | 01:39 |
blue highlight denotes track pick