There are times that we go through pain and loss in our lives. Shlohmo, the Los Angeles based producer, seems to have gone through a particularly rough patch leading up to Dark Red. His collaboration with R&B singer Jeremih was delayed so long by Def Jam that the two artists decided to self release it. And he's mentioned hospital visits and funerals, not the brightest things to bring with you to the studio. All of this despair seems to have been channeled into the music on the album. It's a change of sorts for Shlohmo, a producer who's sound reflected mainstream R&B productions with an added underground flair. The overall experience is heavier, distorted and aggressive, as if there was a dark cloud hanging over the sessions. But he has not just changed up the sound-kit to channel whatever anger he may have. There are excursions into drum'n'bass, ambient noise and more abstract territories. It's almost as if Shlohmo is tearing down the framework that has come to define so much of his earlier output. No longer is he looking to pop for salvation, his on a mission to create something that is entirely his own.

• music label: True Panther Sounds 2015

reviewed by Le Haim 04/2015