NOSTALCHIC (LTD CRYSTAL CLEAR 2LP+MP3) by LAPALUX

Gatefold clear vinyl 2024 repress

'Nostalchic' is Stuart Howard aka Lapalux's debut album, mission statement, and the climax of many years of studying his craft. The album is his most focused document to date, adding his beloved R&B and soul into elements of house and hip hop, all with the trademark Lapalux finish, infectious, lopsided swing and achingly deep texture. Check!

As declared by opener 'Tape Intro,' Lapalux is a keen experimenter with tape, looping and layering sounds via the warm-feeling format provides textures that are haunting, beautiful, fragile, and somehow familiar and alien all at once. These experiments are both purposeful and successful, and their result is dizzyingly good. Add to this his gift for treating a vocal, and the effect is profound.

If many producers use the electronic staples – glitches, fragments and unfamiliar swing – few know how to use them with such intent as Lapalux. Howard adopts these devices only to enhance the emotional force of his music, never simply for their own sake. On single 'Without You,' (which features Kerry Leatham,) the rainy-day, heartbreaking blues is made all the more powerful by the slowed-and-sped vocal. Sung straight, it wouldn't have had the sense of shattered, conflicting emotion that it does.

‘Straight Over my Head’ illustrates Howard’s ability to write songs. From its tentative, melancholic start, a bassline opens up like a sudden, breathtaking vista, the song abruptly driving forward and taking the listener helplessly with it. On 'The Dead Sea,' a squall of jazz trumpets plays over urgent percussion, swirling bass and vocal-like textures to heady effect.

‘Nostalchic’ not only has all the hallmarks of a great album – a sense of cohesive purpose, its own themes, arcs and internal logic – it’s an album that could only have been made in electronic music. Howard understands the power and capabilities that are offered by his form, and he’s used them to the full.