Dust

Michigan-born producer Laurel Halo started out with stargazing synthpop songs, before abstracting and then bleeding out her vocals altogether, culminating in a gloriously offbeat take on dub techno. She now brings voices back into the fold, including guests such as Julia Holter and Lafawndah, on an album that brilliantly reimagines jazz song-craft for the 21st century. The drum programming shuffles, rustles and clangs like a broadsheet being folded on the tube, rarely settling into a steady pulse.

But the centre holds, thanks to perfect snatches of melody. Jelly is as slippery as the title suggests, a dance-pop song whose ingredients have been spilled across the floor. Sun to Solar, meanwhile, is like UK garage done by Arthur Russell, Moontalk showcases dinky J-pop, and you can imagine Erykah Badu and Flying Lotus cooking up bleary ballad Like an L just as their shrooms are wearing off. This is a triumph of impressionism, where the digital and organic coexist in a radically beautiful whole.
5 / 5 The Guardian