Laurel Halo, Behind the Green Door

2013 | Label: Hyperdub / The Orchard

By Michelangelo Matos eMusic Contributor

05.20.13 Electronic album artists often use EPs to sluice out small batches of tightly-knit tracks that might or might not indicate a future direction. Let’s hope that in the case of Laurel Halo’s Behind the Green Door EP, it does — it’s a more straightforwardly beat-driven release than 2012′s Quarantine, something she’s quite good at. Of course, she still bends the framework into all kinds of aural shapes: The stalactite-like keyboards of “Throw,” the opening track, evokes mid-’90s Aphex Twin or µ-Ziq, while “UHFFO” is a phased-dizzy minimalist techno, everything from… more »

Standish/Carlyon, Deleted Scenes

2013 | Label: felte / The Orchard

By Andy Beta eMusic Contributor

05.14.13 A decade ago, Melbourners Conrad Standish and Tom Carlyon comprised the frontline for the Nick Cave-indebted art-rock trio, The Devastations, releasing three noir-ish full-lengths and earning praise from The Birthday Party’s Roland S. Howard along the way. But by the time of their last studio album in 2007, drum machine pulses and dusky electric keyboards pointed toward new directions, which are explored now as the duo Standish/Carlyon. On their debut album, Deleted Scenes, those skittering but subtle beats are foregrounded and deliberate. First single “Nono/Yoyo” finds Carlyon’s guitar in Durutti… more »

The Dillinger Escape Plan, One of Us is the Killer

2013 | Label: Sumerian Records

By Jon Wiederhorn eMusic Contributor

05.14.13 As a live act, the musically volatile Dillinger Escape Plan are one of the last genuinely dangerous experimental metal bands going. Vocalist Greg Puciato’s forehead-slashing barbarism goes beyond shock rock straight into self-loathing and guitarist Ben Weinman’s onstage collisions with amps and gear often result in severe bodily harm.

But while The Dillinger Escape Plan’s live show is a subversive celebration of chaos in motion, their albums — especially from 2007′s Ire Works onward — are meticulous and almost scientific, inventive explorations of the way various musical styles can… more »