Halo (Azonic album)

{{Infobox album

| name = Halo

| type = studio

| artist = Azonic

| cover = Azonic - Halo.jpg

| alt =

| released = July 1, 1994

| recorded = Greenpoint Studios
{{small|(Brooklyn, NY)}}

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Drone, experimental rock

| length = 46:03

| label = Strata

| producer = Bill Laswell

| prev_title =

| prev_year =

| next_title = Skinner's Black Laboratories

| next_year = 1995

}}

Halo is the debut album of guitarist and composer Andy Hawkins, issued under the moniker Azonic. It was released on July 1, 1994 by Strata Records. Marking a departure from his work with Blind Idiot God, the album comprises four lengthy improvised guitar drones accompanied by electronics. Hawkins described the music as a "violent ambiance, harnessing the resonant frequencies of the void to take you out of the here and now."{{cite journal |first=Lyll |last=Gamm |url=http://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/cgi-bin/vassar?a=d&d=miscellany19940923-01.2.50# |title=A Sampling of Subharmonic |journal=The Miscellany News |publisher=Vassar College |date=September 23, 1994 |volume=128 |issue=3 |page=18 |access-date=March 8, 2015}}

Critical reception

{{Album ratings

|rev1 = Allmusic

|rev1score = {{rating|4|5}}{{cite web |first=Brian |last=Olewnick |url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=mw0000118434|pure_url=yes}}|title=Azonic: Halo > Review |publisher=Allmusic |access-date=August 6, 2015}}

}}

In writing for Allmusic, critic Brian Olewnick praised Hawkins' passionate and inventive playing style, saying "Hawkins manages to wring some tasty juice from an area, post-Hendrix rock guitar, that most would have considered long since dry." In 2006, The Wire described Halo as "a criminally overlooked post-Metal masterpiece" and called Hawkins "a master of oceanic reverb and sustain, turning riffs from concrete slabs to gentle, body-caressing ripples."{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ySVMAAAAYAAJ |title=Blind Idiot God |journal=The Wire |publisher=C. Parker |date=2006 |volume=269–274 |page=81 |access-date=March 8, 2015}}

Track listing

{{tracklist

| all_music = Andy Hawkins

| title1 = Beyond the Pale

| length1 = 10:16

| title2 = Shore

| length2 = 11:25

| title3 = Headwaters

| length3 = 11:25

| title4 = Raze

| length4 = 11:50

}}

Personnel

Adapted from the Halo liner notes.{{cite AV media notes |title=Halo |others=Blind Idiot God |year=1994 |type=booklet |publisher=Strata |location=New York City, New York}}

;Musicians