Shark’s producer work is sometimes nerve-wracking, but often also wonderfully beautiful ★★★☆☆

Australian Teneil Throssell wanted to make it with her psych rock band, but was bitterly disappointed. To cope with it, she started a career as Haai (she herself writes it as HAAi) as a DJ in the underground clubs of London, where she suddenly had success. You can hear why on her debut record as a producer. Throssell makes impossible connections and lets strings and gentle guest voices switch with hard techno, breakbeats and haunted drum and bass. The mix of underground and slick pop is remarkable and although it doesn’t work equally well everywhere, the urge to innovate is commendable and interesting to follow an album for a long time.

the tracks Pigeon Barron and fm for example, beautifully constructed techno anthems that develop further in four quarters, are increasingly richly filled with hypnotic side noises. And Biggest Mood Ever, with guest vocalist Alexis Taylor, is a club track disguised as a lovely pop song that gets heavier and more intense when Throssell puts a hundred layers of twisted beats and graceful violins over it. Sometimes nerve-wracking, but often also wonderfully beautiful.