Lapalux – ABOVE BETWEEN BELOW

Stuart Howard aka Lapalux surfaces with a limited edition ambient cassette on Brainfeeder, drawing inspiration from the journey through life, death and the afterlife, split into three movements “ABOVE”, “BETWEEN” and “BELOW”.

“The process of making the record lends itself to the idea of a never ending cycle and a slowly developing loop, much akin to the feeling of what it is to be alive, to die, and the afterlife” he explains. “In order to portray this cyclic feeling I used a 4 track tape recorder and a looping cassette tape which I recorded short musical ideas on to. I then played them back at varied speed and would record another loop on another track and repeat this cycle till the 4 channels of audio could harmonically shift and blend into one another. Then I would use the fader controls on my 4 track recorder, whilst playing the audio back, to fade in and out the individual parts that form each movement. This is all recorded live and in one take.”

Lapalux takes his stunning live show (based around a unique modular rack) to the US/Canada in December 2018. He closes the Asian leg of the tour at Cakeshop in Seoul tonight after visiting Taipei, Jakarta, Bangkok and Singapore.

Cassette / Digital
https://lapalux.lnk.to/abb
1. ABOVE
2. BETWEEN
3. BELOW

Asia/US/Canada tour dates:
09 Nov – Cakeshop, Seoul, South Korea
29 Nov – Adelaide Hall, Toronto, ON: https://ticketf.ly/2QkgNgH
30 Nov – Newspeak, Montreal, QC: http://bit.ly/2oXv32l
01 Dec – Elsewhere, Brooklyn, NY: http://bit.ly/2ScgF3x
04 Dec – Hodi’s Half Note, Ft Collins, CO: https://ticketf.ly/2QmIjKz
05 Dec – Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom Otherside, Denver, CO: https://ticketf.ly/2O6rQs9
06 Dec – Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX: http://bit.ly/2QlwtjK
07 Dec – Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco, CA: https://ticketf.ly/2x9OUA7
08 Dec – Los Globos, Los Angeles, CA: http://bit.ly/lapaluxglobos

Video: Lapalux – Petty Passion

Taken from ‘Ruinism’, out now via Brainfeeder.

Lapalux – 4EVA feat. Talvi

British producer Lapalux shares a brand new track – ‘4EVA (feat. Talvi)’ – via The FADER. Lifted from his forthcoming album “Ruinism” on Brainfeeder, the instrumental was born out of a jam session playing guitar, Korg Polysix and messing about looping a cassette, but it didn’t gel until Lapalux reached out to Talvi. “I’d been a fan of her band Prince Innocence for a while and loved her low slung, seemingly effortless style of singing,” says Lapalux. “As soon as I got the vocals from her it all fell into place and I rebuilt the whole song again to fit around them”.

“Ruinism” is released via Brainfeeder digitally on 30th June 2017 with vinyl and CD formats following on 28th July, including a superlative and strictly limited edition deluxe vinyl 2LP with gloss and emboss detailing produced in collaboration with Parisian atelier Imprimerie du Marais.

Lapalux – Flickering feat. JFDR

Today Lapalux shares a new track from his forthcoming third album for Brainfeeder – “Ruinism”. ’Flickering’ features vocals by Icelandic singer Jófríður Ákadóttir (JFDR) of the bands Gangly, Pascal Pinon and Samaris.

“Stu [Lapalux] and I got together in London when I had just run out the door in Iceland with my laptop and passport – and literally nothing else – so I was in a perfect state of chaos, freedom and exhaustion,” says Jófríður. “The tune came together quite quickly, the only rule I got from Stu was that it couldn’t be about ‘love’. I really like the result, it has a perfect balance of that melancholia-but-you-still-keep-on-going feeling.”

“Ruinism” is released worldwide on 30th June. Amongst the formats is a stunning deluxe blue vinyl 2LP package printed by the high end Parisian atelier Imprimerie du Marais.  Listen back to Lapalux onWorldwide FM celebrating Synth Day (in honour of Bob Moog’s birthday) yesterday here.

Stream / pre-order: https://lapalux.lnk.to/flickering

LAPALUX – Ruinism LP

Lapalux will release his third album, “Ruinism”, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint on 30th June 2017. His previous long player, “Lustmore” was partially inspired by the concept of hypnagogia, a suspension of consciousness occurring between awake and sleep states. Throughout “Ruinism” the British producer takes this exploration further, journeying into the more ominous limbo between life and death. In this space where the finite and infinite intermingle, Lapalux sounds more at home than ever.

“‘Ruinism’ is a made-up term I use to describe the way in which blended sound palettes and inspirations interact with one another to form this album,” he explains. Using 100% hardware and real instruments for the first time in his career, he recorded synths and drum hits and re-sampled, re-pitched, twisted and blended the sound “until it was ‘ruined’” and then salvaged it again in an attempt to make something coherent.

Lead single ‘Rotted Arp (feat. Louisahhh)’ imbues this idea more aptly than any other track on the record according to Lapalux. “It sums up the whole idea of this record… having Louisahhh’s vocals made me think of this track as a much more meaningful piece and helped me push it further and further into a developed abstract dance track”.

Elsewhere on the album, the ethereal ‘Falling Down (feat. JFDR)’ communicates a near angelic sense of hope and possibility despite the inaudible nature of granulated vocals performed by Icelandic singer Jófríður Ákadóttir (JFDR) of the bands Gangly, Pascal Pinon and Samaris. Similarly, ‘4EVA (feat. Talvi)’, winds through a cloudy haze reminiscent of the space between life and death and remains there like a slowly dying pendulum. There’s a warm elevation across the female-driven tracks that, as it unfolds, stand in stark contrast to the industrial and often discordant beginning of the record, most noticeable on cuts like the menacing ‘Data Demon’ and chilling opener ‘Reverence’, which was inspired by French Dada artist Frances Picabia’s 1915 painting of the same name.

Recruiting Marielle Tepper as Creative Director on “Ruinism”, the physical formats include a superlative and strictly limited edition deluxe vinyl 2LP produced in collaboration with Parisian atelier Imprimerie du Marais. It’s available to pre-order now.

Lapalux will play a trio of album showcases in London, Paris and Berlin at the end of May.

Lapalux – “Ruinism” Live:
25 May Mick’s Garage, London – http://bit.ly/2oJcj4c
26 May Point Éphémère, Paris
27 May Gretchen, Berlin

Tracklist:
1. Reverence
2. Data Demon (feat. GABI)
3. Petty Passion
4. Rotted Arp (feat. Louisahhh)
5. Falling Down (feat. JFDR)
6. Displacer
7. 4EVA (feat. Talvi)
8. Essex Is Burning
9. Flickering (feat. JFDR)
10. Running To Evaporate
11. Phase Violet
12. Tessellate

Pre-order: https://lapalux.lnk.to/ruinism

Video: Lapalux – Puzzle feat. Andreya Triana

Having previously collaborated with incredible results not once, but twice – on Lapalux’s “Without You‘” music video and Nick’s short film Chrysalis in 2013 – Lapalux and Nick Rutter have joined forces once again to create a music video for ‘Puzzle’ feat. Andreya Triana from Lapalux’s second album Lustmore (recently released via Brainfeeder).

Starring James Eeles (Peaky Blinders, My Big Fat Diary) and a 1989 Porsche (model 944) it’s a tender and warped love story of a mechanic called Leon who is possessed by love, but no ordinary love… he has mechanophilia (the love or sexual attraction to machines, including cars). In an enclosed and surreal world where his dreams, hallucinations and visions feel wholly real, Leon tries to make sense of his spiralling emotions. And when the penny drops, can he make the right choice?

Lapalux – Lustmore – is out now on Brainfeeder. Lustmore Purchase Links: iTunes, Ninjashop.

Lapalux – Puzzle feat. Andreya Triana

Stuart Howard aka Lapalux unveiled another tune from his sophomore album “Lustmore“. ‘Puzzle’ sees Brainfeeder’s UK representative bring in the soulful voice of British singer (and frequent Bonobo collaborator) Andreya Triana.

“It’s a lovelessness,” Howard says, “searching for something more lustful and fleeting. It’s a very visual song for me. It’s about a sort of seedy, underground desire, like an old bar that used to have class, getting slowly seedier, to keep up with the demand for exploitation and filth. I think it sums up the whole feel and mood of the record,” Howard says. “That kind of sultry, seedy undertone and the pieces of the puzzle not fitting together properly, as if in a state of limbo where you don’t know where you are, but there’s something strangely comforting about it.” Those words could well be a credo for Lapalux’s wider musical vision.

Pre-order Lustmore and get an instant download of Puzzle (ft. Andreya Triana), Closure (feat. Szjerdene) and Don’t Mean A Thing: smarturl.it/lustmoreit.

Lapalux – Lustmore LP

Lapalux knew where and how his sound should change with a second album. As a result, Lustmore feels like a record as compulsively inspired and meticulously crafted as you’re likely to hear in 2015.

Lustmore is loosely based on the idea of hypnogogia, a kind of limbo of consciousness between being awake and asleep. Listeners familiar with his 2011 debut, Nostalchic, will know that Stuart Howard’s woozy, infectious rhythms, enveloping textures and unfamiliarly familiar melodies conjure that territory perfectly.

Lapalux attracted the direct attention of Brainfeeder label owner and electronic music icon Flying Lotus in 2010, and was quickly snapped up by the imprint. Acclaimed early EPs were followed by a number of remixes including Bonobo, Andreya Triana, Lianne La Havas amongst others, before his debut album Nostalchic arrived in 2011. On its release Mojo asserted that: “Lapalux has joined the ranks of contemporary electronica’s finest, like FlyLo himself.” The album was a high watermark, and a statement of intent by a young producer who was pushing electronic music forward.

Lustmore sees the young producer take another stride forward. Opener “U Never Know,” which features another masterful vocal turn by Andreya Triana, sets the tone for the album. “The line ‘I don’t think you’ll know’ describes the mysterious limbo-like state between waking life and sleep,” Howard says.

The sleazy, yearning throb of “Puzzle (ft. Andreya Triana)” is unmistakably sexualized. “It’s a lovelessness,” Howard says, “searching for something more lustful and fleeting. It’s a very visual song for me. It’s about a sort of seedy, underground desire, like an old bar that used to have class, getting slowly seedier, to keep up with the demand for exploitation and filth. I think it sums up the whole feel and mood of the record,” Howard says. “That kind of sultry, seedy undertone and the pieces of the puzzle not fitting together properly, as if in a state of limbo where you don’t know where you are, but there’s something strangely comforting about it.” Those words could well be a credo for Lapalux’s wider musical vision.

The sound palette used in making the album was carefully crafted to sound retro futuristic and otherworldly, having sounds in there that could accompany a Bladerunner or 2001: A Space Odyssey. “Whenever I think about the album I think about the bar scene in The Shining,” Howard says. “There’s something about that strange, hallucinatory psychological madness that relates to the music, both in the making of the actual record and the way it sounds.”

Studying old film soundtracks was a hugely important process for the making of the album. “I really focused on making this album an imaginary visual experience. You can almost see these imaginary movies play in your head when you listen,” he says. “That’s something that I really started to work into my music – the idea of creating imagery and characters, storyline, and emotion.” It’s a process that has certainly worked: Lustmore is imbued with an emotional narrative that never loosens its grip on the ear.

The album Lustmore is scheduled for release on April 6th 2015. ‘Don’t Mean A Thing’ is streaming now on Lapalux’s Soundcloud. Pre-order Lustmore and get an instant download of Closure (feat. Szjerdene) and Don’t Mean A Thing: smarturl.it/lustmoreit

Tracklist:
1. U Never Know (feat. Andreya Triana)
2. Sum Body
3. Closure (feat. Szjerdene)
4. Midnight Peelers
5. Push N’ Spun
6. We Lost
7. Autumn (Tape Interlude)
8. Puzzle (feat. Andreya Triana)
9. Bud
10. Don’t Mean A Thing
11. 1004
12. Make Money
13. Funny Games

Lapalux – Closure feat. Szjerdene

UK beatmaker Stuart Howard aka Lapalux returns with his new single “Closure” featuring the beautiful vocals from Szjerdene. The single is the first taste from his upcoming second album “Lustmore” for Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint.

The 13-track recordis said to be loosely based on the idea of “hypnogogia, a kind of limbo of consciousness between being awake and asleep.” As he says, “I really focused on making this album an imaginary visual experience. You can almost see these imaginary movies play in your head when you listen.”

Lapalux’s “Lustmore” is out on April 7th 2015. Pre-order it here.

Andreya Triana – The Best Is Yet To Come (Lapalux Remix)

Known for her stunning vocals and captivating live performances, Andreya Triana is back with the release of new EP ‘Everything You Never Had Pt. II’, out this week on Counter. Brainfeeder producer Lapalux is the latest artist to work with Triana, remixing her new track “The Best is Yet to Come.” Check it out below. Triana’s highly anticipated album is due out in 2015.