Yaleesa Hall - Woodall (2016)

After three years and ten EPs, Amsterdams Will & Ink label offers up its first full length. It comes from label favorite Yaleesa Hall, is called Woodall and features 14 tracks that explore texture, space and sound design in fascinating ways. Since 2014 Yaleesa Hall has released four EPs on the label and has become known for breakbeat laced stripped-down techno. This debut album finds the producer indulging a less dance floor focussed version of his sound, and one that is better suited to the full length format. Explaining that his tracks most often start as sound structures and experiments that then get reworked for the club, here they stay closer to their original forms. Says the artist: The album is about two things. Flux and friction. I set out to compose something where things evolve organically and where structures and patterns in sound fluctuate fluently. The second aspect is making the sounds interfere and fight together, making it struggle of sorts. There is a loose and sketchy feel to the album with many tracks being under three minutes. It makes it a dynamic listen that demands you come back for more and more. When you do you find industrial ambiance and unsettling drones, the sounds of broken machines and sonic dust and dirt all rubbing up with organic pianos and heavenly chords. Pulsing synths and DIY percussion instruments are close miked whilst broad double bass stokes are off in the distance. When the odd drum line does appear, it is expertly swung and really makes you move. Woodall is sound sculpture that is electronic and synthetic but also made of real world sounds that are all truly absorbing. ...