Shlohmo – Vacation

Label: Friends of Friends

The Way U Do

Wen Uuu

Rained The Whole Time

Since Shlohmo, aka Californian Henry Laufer, began putting out his first EPs he seemed like one to watch. His early Shlo-Fi and Shlohmoshun Deluxe releases ranged from chilled instrumental Hip Hop to growling electro crunk, but it was his stellar debut album Bad Vibes that solidified his impressive talent and unique voice.  On this LP he combined a textured percussive field of clicks and blips with lush organic loops, occasionally added to by his dreamy, wordless falsetto. The result was a deeply atmospheric album that truly sounded like the work of an individual, and while it had its darker moments it could easily be played just to relax. What was almost more worthy of attention was how much he had advanced his sound between his early EPs and his debut, and it’s satisfying to see that here on Vacation, a short collection of three choice tunes, he is once more changing and looking to the future while never losing his unique sound.

This EP doesn’t feel like a rushed post-album release, more a transitionary collection, but given that placement each track here feels very polished and complete. The EP opens with The Way U Do which emotes through a subdued two-note synthline and a broad sweep of percussive accents. A crooning pitched-up vocal creates a gorgeous melody that is effaced by a proggy guitar line, sometimes growling, sometimes screeching, that somehow coheres with his sound, proving yet again Shlohmo’s talent for combining unexpected elements fluidly in his songs. Another talent he has brought on from his debut is that of refusing to let a track settle as a simple set of loops, constantly changing up his sounds and combining them to new effects, such as the twinned vocal lines towards the close of this track. Second track Wen Uuu is equally impressive, with a choppy vocal providing a lilting rhythm that compliments the jerky beats and contrasts with the constant ambient fuzz, occasionally surfacing from this back-and-forth in moments of beauty that you can’t help but notice. Interestingly, it feels that a little influence has seeped into his sound from the dance world; with hollow drum hits of the first track and the chopped up vocals of the second, and although there’s barely a trace of a dance song in these productions these ideas are certainly an interesting addition that work well with his existing sound.

There’s an emotional immediacy to these tunes that reveals the downcast but hopeful mood more clearly than on Bad Vibes, which could occasionally sound a little detached. Lurking behind these lush tunes there was always a hint of melancholy, and here it’s brought more clearly to the fore. Final cut Rained The Whole Time could easily be a tune left off his last record, dealing with slightly more familiar sounds but is none the worse for it. A starker composition with twinkling percussive twitches is supplemented by guitar riffs laced with longing.  A deep vocal growl adds a note of threat before the beautiful second ‘drop’, if you could call it that, where all the sounds come together in a languid beauty. This release is nothing particularly new from Shlohmo but it clearly shows him looking in new directions, and as three cuts of lush, lazy beats it’s practically faultless.

8.5/10