Halogen are a five piece guitar pop band hailing from Perth. Their debut album Save the Ones You Love was released only last year and its lush melodic highs and melancholic lows won the band nationwide acclaim for their sound landscape within their emo-songs.

For their second effort, Halogen have decided on a fearlessly brave move. To entrust sixteen of their finest emotional rock tracks to fifteen of Australia’s most promising electronic producers to transform, as their vision saw fit, is a courageous move. It is a total change in music style, but the result is ‘an intricate blend of textures and melodies which blur the distinction between pop and electronic’. The blurb is not wrong.

Not much more then the bare wrecked chassis of a song was handed to the electronic producers to play with. The vocals, some riffs, few basslines and some light drumming were all that was given to the computer nerds. Synthetic algorithms added the beautiful, warm atmosphere, much in contradiction to their binary core. While Halogen’s first album is definitely emo-rock, this collection could be described by mutating comparisons to Enya and Propellerheads heads rather then their usual melancholy selves.

The dreamy, emotional mood and the subtle use of electronic music effects showcase each individual producer’s artful skills in front of a computer. It’s as if the electro-artists are Mr Squiggle as they take to the basic fragments of the band, transforming the scattered pieces into the picture their own imagination gave them. This is a album that would sooth even the most uptight Mr Blackboard.

Could a Sunday morning in the sunroom recovering from the night before be accompanied by more dulcet tones? The melodies encapture you, the beats mesmerise you. The music takes you away to a place where birds sing in trees and ferrets go about happily… well ferreting.

The one surprising thing is the lack of variety in the songs. It may actually be a positive for the album, but given the claims of ‘bare bones’ given to the electronic artists, its interesting to not they have all produced tracks which are very similar in atmosphere and style. This does help the album flow seamlessly from one track to the next without disrupting the listener out of their induced tranquillity.

While it difficult to pick individual tracks out of this stunning album to praise Collide produced by Heuristic vs DJ Stolen Reeboks is a stand out. Appearing early in the album it signposts the mood and concept of the remainder of the album. Crisp breakbeats underscore the irrepressibly beautiful lyrics of Jasmine Yee. Her melodic vocals form the backbone of the album, with all the electronic backing from the songs based around her amazing voice.

Some artists such as Pablio Dali and Bela Inkster go for a very minimalist approach, such as on A Bitter End and Distant Lights. Nothing In Place is the most minimalist track with Dimitri Kapetas proving that sometimes, less is more.

Bela Inkster in their second contribution goes for a more euro-electro style backing, but like the rest of the track, falling well in behind the dominating vocals. On a whole there is not a lot to distinguish between the tracks. In the detail there is. Detailing how each track slightly varies from the theme would be too difficult. It is suggested that you discover the dynamic beauty for yourself, with your sleeping mat, during quiet time.

Halogen have tried something every radical, adopting a sound bytes away from their usual guitar driven emo-rock, and it has paid off for them in spades. The atmospheric, dreamy album showcases the skills of the individual electronic producers in transforming each Halogen song into pieces of music that fans of air, The Cardigans and Massive Attack (as well as Halogen..hopefully!) will find superlative.