Lapalux

Stuart Howard had the kind of alias, as well as a winking debut album title, Nostalchic, that could have had him mistaken for a lounge music revivalist indebted to Esquivel and Les Baxter. With Lustmore, the producer ratchets up the deception potential with kitschy artwork like that of '90s lounge revivalists Combustible Edison or Love Jones. There are no traces of lounge revival revivalism, however, within the grooves and atmospheres of Howard's second album for Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder label. Lustmore does make for slightly easier listening compared to Howard's previous output. Its melodies are relatively starry, and its contours are softer, crafted with the intent to make the listener feel as if she or he is lodged in a state between sleep and consciousness…

Brainfeeder kingpin Flying Lotus has a talent for stargazing. The label's ranks include jazz fusionists (Thundercat, Austin Peralta), psych-rap futurists (Samiyam, Teebs), and the endearingly inscrutable (Matthewdavid) existing together in dazzling constellation. But when Baths signed to Anticon, Brainfeeder lost their experimental pop artist, the kind of producer who could marry head-swiveling beats to ghostly vocals.
Consider that niche filled. Lapalux, aka Stuart Howard, makes a similar type of sparkling deconstructed pop. He fits the Brainfeeder aesthetic perfectly, as he likes to envision his songs as aural paintings– a visual tie-in obviously appealing to a synaesthete like FlyLo. Lapalux's snares first started snapping on his remix of Thundercat's "For Love I Come"…

Stuart Howard’s third album veers off into the abstract, somewhere between a classical and post-electro mindset. Its many guests are never spotlit and yet its textures never lack a human soul.