- The way Holly Herndon's debut LP, Movement, re-formed the voice into whirling clouds of data seemed to be a comment on our increasingly cybernetic, social-networked existence. It's a theme she makes more explicit in the album's follow-up. For "Chorus," Herndon "sampled her daily browsing experience," using a software patch that recorded snippets of audio coming from her web browser and throw them together. The result is an anarchic jumble of sounds—pristine chords, garbled scraps of percussion and, of course, lots of voices, re-pitched and layered to form the titular ensemble. Its jump-cut logic and fleeting moments of static gorgeousness bring to mind Oneohtrix Point Never's recent R Plus Seven. But rather than presenting these sounds as abstract delights, Herndon wrings a song from them, a jumpy electro pop number that's propelled by its dense arrangement. As a conceptual exercise it's as striking as anything on Movement; as a piece of music it's quite a bit better.
In contrast to the meticulously crafted A-side, "Solo Voice" was apparently recorded in one take. Don't be fooled by the title, though: as usual, Herndon fractures her vocal into raindrop-like fragments, themselves sculpted to form gorgeous, dappled chord-shapes. It's reminiscent of Movement's more linear moments—"Breathe," say—but, again, it's much more pleasing on the ear.
TracklistA Chorus
B Solo Voice