Chance of Rain

Laurel Halo - Chance of Rain
Critic Score
Based on 22 reviews
2013 Ratings: #198 / 1115
User Score
Based on 93 ratings
2013 Rank: #251
Liked by 6 people
October 28, 2013 / Release Date
LP / Format
Hyperdub / Label
Techno / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Tiny Mix Tapes

Built on sporadic percussive takes and blistered textures, Chance Of Rain plows through unintelligible forms — all bones but no structure — struggling to establish itself as material: techno made of wreckage.

90
Crack Magazine
As it melts in and out of your subconscious, you find yourself suspended alongside Halo as she clutters through chaotic processes, to meditate in the headspace she's provided.
90
Resident Advisor

On Chance Of Rain, her second LP, she loses the vocals and lets her machines do the talking. It doesn't feel like a wholesale artistic reinvention, but it does show Halo edging away from the abstract nature of her early records towards something tougher and more immediate. 

85
The 405

Chance Of Rain careens through a dance chicane, weaving between the lands of pop excess and minimalist ambience; it's never still for long enough to be fully pigeonholed, merely slotting partially into pigeoncaverns (which are much larger).

80
musicOMH
Experimental electronic musician Laurel Halo is someone for whom electronic music offers endless possibilities for invention and distortion.
80
PopMatters

In spite of her project’s ever-changing wavelength; she sees the capacities of electronic music, and wonders what it takes for it to exist at all.

80
XLR8R
It is cold and in many ways inhospitable music, but it’s music that’s bursting with ideas and a refreshing willingness to embrace complexity at a time when so much dance music is going back to basics.
80
Clash
‘Chance Of Rain’ an album of dichotomies, both cerebral and heartfelt and as concerned with melody as it is system manipulation. Deranged and balefully bleak.
80
FACT Magazine

As its title implies, Chance of Rain hinges on uncertainty and fluctuating pressure, not outpouring. It’s impersonal, then, but never inhuman.

80
The Line of Best Fit

Plainly speaking, this is psychedelic music, and it’s music that’s both moving and a pleasure to move to.

80
The Skinny

Thrillingly, its very minimalism highlights sections of Laurel Halo’s canvas left blank – intentionally, you suspect – and crying out to be filled by the listener. Accept that invitation: Chance of Rain has vision and scope to spare.

74
Pitchfork

When the album finds a moment of peace—like when the title track dissolves into a simple, noir-ish outro—it feels forged. Craggy and hard as hell, you'll wish Chance of Rain forged a few more such moments, but its consistent, nagging ability to knock you off balance is worth wrestling with.

70
Drowned in Sound

What Chance of Rain does, more so than any of Halo's work, is create a sense of liveness and immediacy that doesn't diminish with familiarity.

70
Slant Magazine

Chance of Rain is a murmuring storm of alluvial drones and steady percussive patter.

70
NME

Vocal-free, ‘Chance Of Rain’ sees Laurel Halo once more stepping back behind the sounds of her machines, but it’s the depth of those sounds that speaks volumes. 

70
AllMusic

Halo's voice is never heard -- likely a relief for those who found Quarantine too unsettling -- but this is about as jolly as the cover illustration, drawn by her father.

60
No Ripcord
It’s a bigger adventure, for sure, but it never feels more adventurous.
60
The Irish Times
It's an edgy, occasionally claustrophobic, sometimes uneasy and hugely intense listen. The machines very much have the upper hand.
40
Spectrum Culture

On Chance of Rain she pushes those boundaries into territory which is alien and clockwork, only approximating anything human or organic with vague stylistic references.

EntryIncomplete
78

Aiming for a more conventional sound, Laurel Halo has made an instrumental techno album that still carries a lot of her musical quirks. It's obviously not as personal or as freakishly disorienting as her previous album, but by mixing in elements of musique concrete with techno, she has proven once again that she is an incredibly talented producer that follows her own path.

hojj
80

pretty cool

CheapandLethal
75

Decent

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Track List

1Dr. Echt
1:37
73
2Oneiroi
7:34
84
3Serendip
6:28
80
4Chance Of Rain
7:35
73
5Melt
2:19
77
6Still/Dromos
3:50
68
7Thrax
5:55
77
8Ainnome
7:13
70
9Out
1:29
70
Total Length: 44 minutes
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Added on: October 9, 2013