Halou – Wholeness And Separation

Dance In Your Sleep With Halou

Since their meeting in 1992, spouses Rebecca and Ryan Coseboom have experimented with creating a sound that is both highly musical and electronic. With their third album Wholeness and Separation, Halou finds the perfect balance they worked towards in their first two records.The album’s title is the ideal explanation of what Halou succeeds in doing. Halou merges song and machine sounds seamlessly together while filtering the impact it has on each song. In “Tubefed” the band knows when to let Rebecca’s silky vocals and instrumental sound take the lead and when to enhance the machine sound, like in “Stone Fruit,” to give a mix of Enya-like etherealness and Radiohead’s Kid A mechanical sound. The third band member, Count, whose engineering abilities aided many other famous bands such as No Doubt, creates much of this. He takes time to incorporate live instruments from drums to cello to give an authentic base overlade in spacey rhythms. Rebecca’s smartly sung lyrics, whether ironic, wise, or heartfelt, become reflected by the parallel aching twangs of the guitars or the taunting cry of the electric keyboard. You don’t have to catch every note she sings to understand the emotion she’s trying to exude.

The album flows from fast paced dance tunes, with “Everything is OK,” to slow sensual house music, like with “Ratio of Freckles to Stars.” The last half of the album reintroduces much of the earlier rhythms without the feel of a techno nightclub. Once “Things Stay the Same” finally fades out, it might seem you just woke up from a mystical but restful sleep. Luckily with Wholeness and Separation, Halou will provide many more sweet dreams.