Helena Hauff | Qualm | Ninja Tune
Release Date: 3 August 2018
Written by Jenna Dreisenstock
The swirl of sound the textural electronic sphere; the ability to play with timbre and tone in a dark willingness to explore and create in nostalgia and modernity.
With many influences in her unique style, German-born DJ and producer Helena Hauff brings us a taste of her ever experimental nature in her latest release Qualm – an open traverse through the energetic and tender rawness of electronic timbre, exciting and uptempo amongst a loving twilight in it’s darkness.
Opening in percussive tribal melody, ‘btdr-revisted’ submerges the feather-light tender strikes in a swallowing bubble of drench synth. Uptempo in crystal cymbals, the science-fiction oscillating and bending aliens of synthesizer stretch; the hover of extraterrestrial over the fast percussive clap and distorted fuzz and glissando lazer beams over a confident beat.
Introduction in feedback and fluttering chiptune, ‘Entropy Created You And Me’ sings the sweetness of the high-pitch melody; dancing in 90s video game nostalgia, gently swallowed in grain and fuzz – the track glitters to a heavy layer of bass in hovering waves in a wind-up toy ghost; honeyed in syrup and atmospheric haze.
Science-fiction electronic drone in greeting as the ‘The Smell of Suds and Steel’ opens with the buzzing extraterrestrial before revealing a textural sphere; a dynamic chamber of melodic synthesizers swaying in turn with soundscapes in haze. With an animated tempo progressing with red-beam laser bullets, confident with industrial sting. An electric soundscape buzzes in electronics; closing in spitting ammunition.
A tender companionship in the glowing fantasy-world, an eclectic yet authentic melodic swirl calms gently in ‘Qualm’ – the rise and fall of 80’s synthwave-esque experimentation amongst lyrical synths sing curiously in a loving embrace. A sweet easy listening in the soundscape progression, a moonbeam glitter star-studded into a darker fall in a clouded fuzz.
Reminiscent of 80’s arcade, ‘It Was All Fields Around Here When I Was A Kid’ greets us in plump synth-bubbles; s single melodic line introduced in turn to a scratch-glitch companion; a confident whirl of the synth ebb and flow. Turntable spin and slow accompanied in percussive flutter, and angelic melody graces the soundscape as it grows fuller and blooms in electronic baking.
Qualm continues to express Helena Hauff’s love for the intricacies and dynamic nature of electronics; the experimentation with her auditory personality in tempo and timbre, a type of darkness in an sparking heart-beat tempo.
Purchase Qualm by Helena Hauff
For more information visit her website
