Released: 2021
The producer of Caroline Polachek’s albums Pang and Desire I Want To Turn Into You Danny L Harle has an interesting musical sideline. Dubbed Harlecore, he transports himself into the persona of a hardcore rave DJ and releases the kind of stuff you normally hear booming out of a heavily modified Vauxhall Corsa.
This is of interest because Polachek’s career, first via Chairlift and then prior to teaming up with Harle, had been spent figuring in the margins, even to the point of releasing an album entirely made up of ambient drones called Drawing The Target Around The Arrow under the name CEP in 2017.
Along with Harle she underwent a sonic reinvention. Wisely choosing to carve her own niche in sophisti-pop, the centrepiece of Desire.. was playful, but the central character an enigma; who was Bunny, were they an object of desire or full of scorn? The singer chose not to reveal much and the song’s infinitely clever touches and hooks gave it a listenability that far outweighed that of the playlist age. Rave on Caroline, rave on.
The Voice Of Unreason 