It's been a long time coming since I heard my first Hullabalo0 serving. I found "Kuria" through EDM.com in 2014, to be precise, and since then I've witnessed his crunk and jazz influence fuse with psychedelia in unconceivable ways. After several EP releases with Street Ritual, Swamp Music, ShadowTrix Music, and a heap of compilation features and singles, Towers is Hullablao0's latest self-released effort in a saga of squelchy, jazzy and funky neuro-bouncin basstravaganzas.

The album is made up of 11 songs, with a consistent synthesis aesthetic that is present throughout the album. Arps sounding like sparks of a plasma field fire, oomphed out yet non-invasive wubs, sparse sound placement and a shivelight of silence which always shines through the crystal-clear mixes form a truly curious overall balance of sophisticated jazziness and outright silliness.

When you hear these songs, it’s hard not to smile. Certain ludicrous thoughts come to mind during some of the album's best moments; "Apple Seed" and "Fos" sound like the VIP lounge of an intergalactic disco inside a wormhole. There’s an unintended yet precise pun about the Californian music group; the trippy ending of "Business" and beginning of "Waauuoo" utilize Hullabalo0's cinematic atmospheres, as heard in his 2014 track, "Leviathan," with samples of mega-old films. The synthesis of sneezes into the hilariously hard-hitting "Dad Sneeze"; and tracks like "La Vita È.." with an overall euphoric vibe and neat glitchy groove present a ripe balance.

Having read about Hullabalo0's background through his recent interview with ThisSongSlaps.com, and learning that this dude "might as well have been born on the moon" due to living in countless countries in his upbringing and the inability to pinpoint where he is from, the extremely alien nature of his music can be more easily contextualised. These sounds don't necessarily fit in any one location or culture on the planet, and they may as well be extra-terrestrial compositions with a faint yet welcome whiff of humanity to them.

Towers is another step in the maturation and diversification of Hullabalo0's sound, and it is an ode to the work-flow optimization that he's achieved after the past few years to reach a consistent sound and production quality. To balance the article with some constructive criticism, it should be mentioned that while the whole album is highly danceable, a few of the songs such as “Waauuoo” and “Crab-Walk” fall short in memorability, as they don't have unique features in contrast to other tracks like “Dad Sneeze” which is instantly unforgettable, and the luscious Rainbow Runways type melodies of "Amsuleo" and "La Vita È.." Nevertheless, Hullabalo0 is carving a new path in psybass, which is automatically distinct from most other artists, and it stems from a trained hepcat approach which has been bolstered through years of practice, and humanizingly wacky humour.

You can scoop Hullabalo0's Towers here.

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