Photo by Jester Bulnes

Across a handful of EPs and a split with east coast kindreds voyeur last year, untitled (halo) have been crafting a mysterious refraction of post-shoegaze in the underbellies of the Los Angeles underground for a few years now — though, if you ask the four-piece of vocalist and bassist Ariana Mamnoon, vocalist and guitarist Jack Dione, drummer and producer Jay Are, and Nicholas Noneman, they will tell you there’s no such scene in LA and that’s what prompted the longtime friends to come together in the first place.Now they’re about to release these untitled ones are about to release a self-titled debut full-length on Dirty Hit — the same huge indie label that counts the 1975, beabadoobee, and Kelly Lee Owens as members of its roster — so I guess playing it coy and enigmatic paid off in the long con of buzzing their way through the algorithm as organically as you can these days.

There’s really nothing reductive you’ll hear coming out of the LP’s lead single “aimee lou wood freestyle” even when you think the listen is shaping up to be a studio-shellacked neo-trip-hop-laced condensation of dream-pop guided by Mamnoon’s clandestine coo. The switch-up happens about midway through when a cloud rap schism from co-vocalist Jack Dionne forms through the vapors. “666, yeah, all I see is black/ Don’t touch me if you ain’t touchin’ stacks,” his bars drop, all hitting while taking a cig to the mouth in its accompanying self-directed cool-crafting visuals. “I found myself in the depths of you,” Mamnoons searches through and into the clear over a space age synthetic arpeggio in response. I’m not sure what any of that has to do with all of the Satanism or ballin’, but it’s certainly an edgy look that doesn’t really need to explain itself as to why it draws that energy in.

untitled (halo)’s untitled (halo) will be released November 6th on Dirty Hit.