Lapalux – Some Other Time (Brainfeeder/ October 16 2012)

By Jack Flahavan

Lapalux (real name Stuart Howard) is back with his second EP for Brainfeeder with Some Other Time, a contorted, brain-frazzling reel of electronic music that flickers like the projection of a scatty silent film, jumping from image to image without a narrative, delineating a swath of juxtaposing thoughts and emotions.

The EP is vehemently experimental and almost impossible to categorize, as the sounds drift in and out of the listener’s consciousness, receding into the gray momentarily, only to ping forwards once again with the rapidity of a stone that has been fired from a slingshot. The cerebral qualities of Some Other Time are the defining facets, which, in turn, incite one’s sensory perception, enlivening the emotions that shift from one state to the next without lingering for too long.

‘Quartz’, the opening track, is an infantile music-box melody that soothes a fraught pocket in the mind to cause a lull. ‘Jaw Jackin’, on the other hand, is the wake-up call that prickles with excited beats that ricochet like protons and electrons. ‘Forgetting and Learning Again’, is graced with the effeminacy of Kerry Leatham, whose vocal contribution takes Howard’s audiovisual melting pot from obscurity into the structural fashion of a song. ‘Strangling You With Chord’ is more robust and carries plenty of clout, throwing fists tight with raw energy, colouring the EP with primal nature. ‘Close Call’, the closing refrain, leaves everything in disequilibrium, failing to bring closure to the experience that has unfurled, and it leaves a pang of anticipation that can perhaps only be quelled by reverting back to the beginning, where tranquillity is reaffirmed.

What Howard has done is create a kaleidoscopic panorama that seems to perpetually evolve, which is both confusing and immensely fascinating at the same time. The more one listens, the more sensations are awakened, making the album more than just a composition, but a concept of how music can express what would be inexpressible in words or conversation. For an acquired taste, Some Other Time fits the bill with ease, but it also has the potential to convert those who have an aversion to the electronic juggernaut that is seemingly the future of the industry.