Narc. Magazine Online
Reliably informed
An avant-garde contender for album of the year
4AD
Released: 18.05.15
More information on Holly Herndon’s official website
Appearing suddenly, shockingly – the future, at last! Holly Herndon’s music draws upon plenty of on-going strands and trends: hints of the subversive ambiance of artists like Oneohtrix Point Never are thrown against the distended thump of techno, yet the vocal layering and sublime programming reaches for chrome sleekness and stained-glass beauty rather than chin-rubbing grotesquery. Herndon makes use of internet subcultures as sound sources and thematic springboards, but it comes across not as co-option but as an attempt to delve deep down into the way our thought patterns and behaviour are being so swiftly re-written by the digital age. Herndon makes a stand for a practical, humane avant-garde, and the result is Platform, surely one of the albums of the year.
