Full Circle kicks off with a bang, as “Pray” operates at a faster pace than much of what comes after. The instrumental is an intricate mechanism of synths and drums all whirring together in unison, reminiscent of The xx’s early material.

As we dig deeper into the project though, the tempo slows down and the tracks start to blur together. The somberness is obvious in the reverberating guitar line of “Alone” or the pained falsetto of “Cloud Nine”, but often there’s a layer of foggy detachment. Even through the fancy wiring of Radiohead’s Kid A, Thom Yorke’s emotions were easy to glom onto.

“Earth Not Above” tweaks the formula with pounding break drums and a tightrope synth string melody that gives the track some underlying menace. “Is this what we have become?” asks Lotti Benardout, with resignation, already knowing the answer. Michael van valkenburgh.

There aren’t any outright failures on Full Circle - Bernardout and her bandmates Dom Goldsmith and Arthur Delaney are too talented to turn out a subpar project - but there are moments that simply lack staying power.

Discover the best new music, travel, film, gaming, arts, food, culture and book content on Australia's premiere independent online publication. Our music reviews - song reviews, album reviews, EP reviews, track reviews, video reviews, and more. Home / Reviews / News / 2019 Rankings / Schedule / Search / March. Unfortunately, though, Haelos can’t maintain their early stratospheric standard, and the rest of ‘Full Circle’ is far more pedestrian fare. While not fatal, that dip in quality is anticlimactic: as each track drifts by in a haze of breakbeat, dual vocals and space echo, positioning Haelos more.

Haelos has always been a bit of a mystery band to me, but after stumbling upon their 2020 singles quite by accident, I returned to this album. I needed to give this more attention than I did. The album starts out with a downtempo track in 'Another Universe' that is very similar to the music on their debut. After that, things get interesting.

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Still, it’ll be exciting to keep an eye on HÆLOS, because once they peel back the layers of cool kid sorrow into something deeper and more universal they have the talent to produce a stellar record. They clearly don’t lack ambition, as evidenced by Full Circle’s Alan Watts introduction, and bands this secure in their sound as newcomers are hard to find.