Out Of Sight. Haze

With Out Of Sight Haze has released its second album, for me personally the first. A few weeks ago single 'Hiding' made it to the weekly singles post of this blog and wetted my appetite for the album. I was not disappointed in the slightest. Haze has released an album that is a joy to listen to.

Haze is Mirabelle van de Put from Belgium. She started her solo project Haze to step out of her comfort zone and explore where her vision and imagination would take her. On her second album as Haze she takes it all one step further and experiments with sounds and soundscapes, besides the organic instruments you hear on Out Of Sight.

If anything, the references I have to her music are with triphop. I am reminded of the Portishead albums and the Massive (attack) songs I know. Things Haze only start there. A significant part of this music is mystery. Most of the songs bring to mind a dream with a sense of being lost and really not knowing where you are; without navigation. While at the same time being reminded that things are not what they seem. Strange sounds and noises keep coming at me and an ominous atmosphere pulls at me from all sides.

At the same time all is beautiful. The way the guitars as it were move between the atmospherics, the way the drums truly are a combination of the center that keeps it together and sounds that seem just to float around. Jakob Nachtergaele really deserves a mention here. His soft drumming adds so much to the whole Out Of Sight is. No matter how ominous the atmosphere seems to me, in my mind I lay myself down on the soft flowing music and let myself float with it, totally trusting Haze to bring me back safely.

Liking Out Of Sight does surprise me. I wasn't one for triphop and this album reminds me why. Haze combines the electronics with "real" music. The song is the starting point, not the experimentation in sound. Take the dark guitar solo in 'Hiding' and the solo notes played in the interlude. With Van der Put's bass and the drums, 'Hiding' becomes the most dreamy rock song I've ever heard. In 'Roger' an Air like mood is created, but again an organic version. This way Haze comes close to the Gainsbourg-Doillon clan. She certainly is gaining on Charlotte and can set her sight on Lou.

Mirabelle van der Put and Stijn Vanmarsenille, the man she calls her soundwizard, created all the sounds together, producer Frederik Segers took care of the sound quality. Between them they did a great job. It is totally evident that Haze can go with the best of them. Out Of Sight is an album that surprised me. From the second listen session I knew this was an album for me, giving it the benefit of the doubt because of 'Hiding'. The effort of listening once more paid off. What a nice album.

Wout de Natris