Whether it be under the guise of Circuit des Yeux or the equally adventurous Jackie Lynn, Haley Fohr has channelled everything from skewed chamber folk to off-kilter avant-pop, sonically wavering between large amphitheaters and gritty dance floors. The results have seen the Layfette, Indiana-born, Chicago-based chameleon blur the lines with something akin to a lost transmission on the AM radio frequency.
A free-form coda in every sense, Fohr has drawn inspiration from the darkest frontiers; the droning organ hum forming the foundation for the fiercest instrument of all: Fohr’s voice. Somewhere between reality and myth, Fohr’s four-octave vocal span has seen her move majestically across a borderless sound world purely of her own making. Her subtle, midwestern brogue, another crucial layer that adds to the ominous theatre of the Circuit des Yeux experience.
2021’s -io saw Fohr move the Circuit des Yeux story beyond Chicago touchstones Drag City and Thrill Jockey to Matador Records. In all of its bombastic verve, -io had moments, and while it confirmed that Fohr was perhaps no longer the “the dark star they wanted you to be” (Reaching for Indigo’s Black Fly), the future suggested that something bigger was in the offing. And following 2024’s standalone single, God’s Dick, that future is now with Circuit des Yeux’s Halo on the Inside.
Taking a different creative approach by writing through the night, Fohr’s A.M. wanderings expose new depth and clarity on Halo on the Inside. New creative pockets that find Circuit des Yeux exploring new corners, and it’s here where the best results are found.
“I can see the face in anything when the tide pulls to me,” Fohr hollers on opening song and lead track, Megaloner. A song centered on the endurance test of one’s fate, electric jolts pulse with Nine Inch Nails-like dread with the residue dripping from the speakers as riffs and horns jostle under the mix. It’s as direct as Fohr has been in song, offering a snapshot of the cold basement from where much of Halo on the Inside was plotted.
It’s the musicality of Halo on the Inside that defies the odds. Each song, like a precious jewel in the crown. With prickling bass lines, the BPM caffeine rush of Canopy of Eden unveils Fohr’s deep baritone vocal as something likened to a dispatch from orbit (“I can make a radio break”). Moving from this sci-fi sprawl, Skeleton Key sees the listener placed in a different enclave altogether. With rich, less-is-more arrangements, it’s a dirge that sits between a performance for the high-society and operatic metal for the life-damaged.
Circuit des Yeux - Halo on the InsideWhich is where Anthem of Me fits in. Inspired by a visit to Greece where Fohr developed an interest in the mythological character, Pan, Anthem of Me is droning, downer-rock that echoes from the abyss. It’s something Chelsea Wolfe has mastered over the years, but Fohr adds her own inflections with vocal groans and a sweeping falsetto that hits with the force of an army battalion.
It’s a stark contrast to Cosmic Joke. A skeletal vocal-led performance (“I know the face an actor makes when he’s losing”), the white lights bear down on the centre stage where all eyes are on Circuit des Yeux. The crowd, as quiet as a cemetery, and it’s this contrast of quiet-loud that gives Halo on the Inside such a sparkling ebb and flow. Truth, another of the album’s restrained moments, sees Fohr’s vocal reach new peaks, so vivid and clear that it could travel across the high seas.
Billed as Halo on the Inside’s focal point, Cathexis peels back new layers of virtuoso. On a sonic bedding of hip-hop beats, bristling strings and faint pedal steel echoes, it’s a museum of inventiveness that is something to behold. Every instrument utilised, afforded ample space to breathe, manoeuvre and make an indelible mark.
So too on the game-changing Organ Bed. With an explosion of synths and saxophones, it’s Halo on the Inside’s shining beacon. An explosion of ideas that is like being showered in radiant debris, Organ Bed is music maximalism that is Circuit des Yeux’s finest moment committed to tape. It’s also where producer, Andrew Broder, lands the heftiest blow. Having previously worked with the likes of Lambchop and Moor Mother, Broder’s grasp for maximising minimalism opens new portals for Fohr to move through with vigour and grace.
With such an endorphin rush-like intensity, it’s only just that Fohr draws the curtains on Halo on the Inside with an instrumental-based dispatch of whirring drones and haunting soundscapes that shape the underworld milieu she has orchestrated here. It’s a nod to Fohr’s past as she marches forward in the present. Those off-kilter moments of Circuit des Yeux’s previous years, reimagined with new vivid shapes, colours and tones.
And that’s what Halo on the Inside is. A sound collage adjacent to everything you’ve ever heard. Maximalism has always been a divisive form of artistic expression, simply because of its forcefulness. The very idea of it needs to be tempered, and on Halo on the Inside, Circuit des Yeux strikes the perfect balance. Fohr’s vocal performance, utterly fearless, and backed by forward-thinking arrangements, Halo on the Inside is a kaleidoscope that surpasses all she has delivered before it.
Halo on the Inside is out Friday via Matador Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.
