You can take the boy out of the (university) halls, but you cant take the Halls out of the boy. At least not in the case of 23-year-old ex-university student Sam Howard, who has adopted said title under which to purvey his musical outpourings since it (uni) was where he began formulating his early work.
While Fragile is in fact his third EP, it is only perhaps now (and with his signing to the roster of The Sounds Of Sweet Nothing label, also harvesting the promising likes of Au Palais and Gross Magic) that the south London electro laptop singer/songwriter will come into his own. Over 15 minutes there is nothing ostentatious, despite its Radiohead-lite flavour in places (I Am Not Who You Want, Lifeblood), nor, given its electronica ambience, does it lend to trippy dancefloor moves. As Howard has elected to broaden his approach with the introduction of piano and strings, whilst the samples element remain, it is not, therefore, synth over-laden.
On the opener Sanctuary, Howards vocals lay muted against a two-chord suspension of strings that swell like an incoming tide before bleeding into Lifeblood, where subtle piano loops propel on a dreamy soundscape texture and glitchy beats against Howards hazy vocal tone. The instrumental Fade to White offers percussion strains behind a hauntingly repetitive rhythm of deviated beats. But it is I Am Not Who You Want which is perhaps the standout track of the four, and it is an intriguing one. Coming in on a church organ effect, before glitchy beats move in to complement, the vocal cadence brings to mind a Gregorian chant that has been set to music. Quite different. Quite spellbinding.
Fragile is an entirely apt title for this delicate, graceful yet not without substance collection, in which Halls has shown he has the ability to disarm, please and haunt the memory.