Harlecore

Like most members of the PC Music collective, Danny L. Harle's releases were usually EPs or the purest unit of pop music, singles. After eight years on the scene, Harle delivered his debut album, and like his old friend and fellow collective member A.G. Cook's album Apple, his first full-length is high concept. A multimedia project revolving around a virtual club, Harlecore presents the tracks that the club's four DJs spin. DJ Danny plays euphoric hardcore, DJ Mayhem plays gabber, DJ Ocean plays ambient, and MC Boing plays makina, a Spanish style similar to happy hardcore. While the album's conceptual complexities are almost intimidating, the actual music couldn't be further from it. Harlecore gives the blissful escapism of late-'90s and early-2000s rave culture a 2020s update while staying lovingly true to its roots (the album cover could even pass for a vintage flyer). From the opening arpeggios and diva vocals of "Where Are You Now" to the massive stomp of "Interlocked," Harle recaptures the sounds of the era perfectly. The album is also faithful to Harle's own body of work: each track showcases the idealism, emotion, and playfulness of his previous singles, and the idea of a virtual experience that's more authentic than mere reality is pure PC Music. Harlecore boasts the flow of a mixtape and the rush of a night out, and its breathless pace rarely lets up. "Energy level way past ten!," MC Boing shouts on the spring-loaded "Boing Beat," one of Harle's makina homages; later, the strobing "Piano Song" makes it even clearer how much the style influenced his music and the PC Music aesthetic. Harlecore finds balance in its extremes, and DJ Ocean's crystalline chillout tracks ("Ocean's Theme" and "For So Long") provide a couple of well-placed breathers from the rest of the album's hyperactivity. DJ Danny's songs give Harlecore a surprising amount of heart, whether on massive yet bittersweet "On a Mountain" or "Do You Remember," where sugary soprano vocals and pummeling beats combine in candy-coated nostalgia. DJ Mayhem's "All Night" is another stratospheric highlight, as is "Shining Stars," which helps bring the album to its rousing conclusion. Even without the conceptual framework, Harlecore is a briskly entertaining look back -- and forward -- at some of EDM's fizziest, gaudiest sounds. ~ Heather Phares