Dalhous, the cult electronic music project masterminded by Edinburgh-based writer-producer Marc Dall, has become a force to be reckoned with. Closely associated with the Blackest Ever Black label, they debuted on that imprint in 2012 with the Mitchell Heisman EP, before releasing their first album, An Ambassador For Laing, to widespread acclaim in 2013: The Wire magazine praised “a frequently beautiful music, whose often calm surface belies the powerful currents moving beneath it”, while FACT called the LP a “wonderfully compelling head-scratcher … opaque, elusive – and fascinating.”
Having closed that year with a split EP on Japan’s 10 label with Matthew Herbert, Steven Porter and Perc, they returned in Spring 2014 with an mesmerising new EP, Visibility Is A Trap , including a remix of Ambassador highlight ‘He Was Human And Belonged With Humans’ by techno icon Regis.
July 2014 sees the release of brand new studio album Will To Be Well. A sensuous, cinematic epic that has already won plaudits from the likes of Pitchfork and Resident Advisor , it reflects Dall’s continued interest in the life and arcana of radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing, but also alludes to more universal and enduring mysteries: the relationships between body and mind, illness and wellness, the physical and the metaphysical.
Given the often abstract nature of Dalhous’s inspirations, the music itself is remarkably vivid and accessible: Dall communicates directly and succinctly, with poignant, unforgettable melodies that merit comparisons with the likes of Tangerine Dream, GAS, Richard D. James, Popol Vuh and Angelo Badalamenti. Dreamlike and fathomlessly deep, at once rapturous and suffused with a deep melancholy, Will To Be Well is a major work from a hugely exciting young artist.
As of February 2016