Photo: Erika Miyagiwa

After first announcing his new partnership with NYC label True Panther with the release of last year’s “Emerge from Smoke” single, Los Angeles beatmaker Henry Laufer (a.k.a. Shlohmo) has announced the details of his forthcoming second full-length record, Dark Red, which will drop via the imprint in April. A co-release with Laufer’s own Wedidit collective/label, the 11-track record is said to find Shlohmo continuing to craft gloomy, textured productions with shades of “’90s IDM, R&B, cassette-tape Jungle, and, in an unexpected turn, sludge metal.”

“It sounds like if Electric Wizard tried to make an R&B record,” Laufer himself explains in a press release, “or Boards of Canada meets Burzum by the River Styx.” Laufer goes on to further explain that he began recording the record after returning to Los Angeles and setting up a small studio in his apartment which was mostly stocked with an arsenal of ’80s-era gear originally owned by his father. Furthermore, Laufer was in a particular mental state during the recording of the album, saying, “I had just lost some people close to me and was dealing with another loved one’s health issues. I was all over the place mentally, and I think it reflects in this record whether I like it or not.” In the press release, the SoCal artist goes to explain that his one aim going into the record was to make it “loud… and not just loud but really really fucking loud. I wanted the sound of the thing to be devastating and violent.”

Helping us make sense of that description is “Buried,” the record’s lead single which sees wobbly melodies, scattered drums, and distorted, hand-played basslines rise from a bed of electronic noise. The seven-minute production can be streamed in full below, where the complete tracklist for Shlohmo’s Dark Red LP (out on April 7) has also been included; the man’s updated list of upcoming live tour dates can also be found below.

1. Ten Days of Falling
2. Meet Ur Maker
3. Buried
4. Emerge From Smoke
5. Slow Descent
6. Apathy
7. Relentless
8. Ditch
9. Remains
10. Fading
11. Beams