Shlohmo - Dark Red (2015)

ark Red is the second full-length album from Shlohmo, aka 25 year-old Los Angeles native Henry Laufer. The album is an uncanny marriage of his ever-evolving, richly textured sound with shades of 90s IDM, R&B, cassette-tape Jungle, and, in an unexpected turn, sludge metal. “It sounds like if Electric Wizard tried to make an R&B record,” he says, “or Boards of Canada meets Burzum by the River Styx.” Shlohmo’s music thus far exists in the poles between the subtle textured tracks of 2011’s Bad Vibes and the booming sinister synths and hihats of his production work and remixes (split EP with Jeremih, Banks’ “Brain”, remixes for Drake + The Weeknd). Dark Red utilizes Shlohmo’s existing palate but also mines the noises and imperfections inherent in analog production and naturally damaged sounds. Side-stepping current trends that lean towards pristine, computer-generated production, Dark Red explores natural distortion, fuzz and noise as compositional tools, intentionally distressing sounds to echo the feeling of the icy menace and emotional charge found on early black metal tapes. The result is a deeply personal listen, Shlohmo’s boldest statement yet.