British producer Lapalux is obsessed with detail. Over his two albums and four EPs for Brainfeeder since 2011, he’s honed in on the minutiae of vocal harmonies and melodic, sample-focused beats; he draws on hip-hop, R&B grooves and the mid-‘00s style of glitchy electronics that became the signature style of Brainfeeder’s Low End Theory party. On this year’s *Ruinism* album, he experiments with field recordings layered between analog machines and software, using vocal and sound processing in new ways. By recording synths and drum hits, then sampling, pitching and twisting until it was “ruined,” he salvaged sound into new tracks; his collaborations with female vocalists such as Louisahhh and Iceland’s Jófríður Ákadóttir (JFDR), work harmonics into almost-industrial blends.
