Downtempo electronic/ambient/IDM
Here’s the duo’s first album in seven years, and it’s a beauty. The sound is full, characteristically trippy, and amply gritty. Tonally and conceptually dark stuff—supposedly there are a lot of hidden messages in here that point to apocalyptic themes. (You go way, way down the rabbit hole if you look up internet forum discussions of this album. It’s pretty cool.) Think old electronic horror/sci-fi B-movie soundtracks on big budgets. Favorites: 2, 4, 8, 13, 15, 17. No FCCs.

1. (2:56)—Beatless. Starts like the intro to an old sci-fi film, turns dark and a little noisy.
2. *(4:47)—Slow and heavy on the warm drones. Crackling beats, deep bass. Beats and synths get more active and fill out the high-end in the second half.
3. (3:13)—Slow, dreamy, rhythmic synth interplay. Barely-there bass beat enters near the end.
4. *(6:35)—Slow. The woozy, iconic science movie synths on seasick loop. Halfway through this starts building and adds a synth line that sounds about as close to electronic weeping as you could get.
5. (1:32)—Beatless. Dark drones. Warped, deep voice: “Testing…1, 2, 3….”
6. (3:42)—Slow crawl. Heavy beat, chopped-up voices, layers of slow synths piling up. Imagine some movie scene where the hero is walking across the tundra.
7. (2:18)—Beatless. Pulsing, watery synth loops, heavily manipulated voice clip. Mash of backgrounded synths and soundbites at the end.
8. *(4:16)—Medium-fast. Especially pretty, melancholy synth lines. Driving, slightly glitchy beat. Fades into a ghostly ending that makes me think of the sound the BART makes as it approaches.
9. (2:49)—Classic arpeggiated synths. Ominous, windy drones. Apparently this track is structured as a palindrome—sounds exactly the same backwards or forwards. Whoa.
10. (4:05)—Slow. Now this is bouncy. Manipulated vocals chanting, “We have everything.” Sounds like a royal procession constructed entirely of electronics.
11. (4:28)—Slow. The background synths and sound effects make this sound particularly sci-fi. Chopped and screwed clip of a conspiracy doc.
12. (1:59)—Beatless and bleak. Transmitter failure never sounded so elegiac.
13. *(3:52)—Slow, glitchy, psychy. Another ominous, dark voice sample.
14. (2:16)—Great, warm drone. Uncannily similar to more recent Stars of the Lid.
15. *(5:39)—Slow. The dominance of synth blips over drones makes this the tensest piece on the album. Sounds like the intro a full-on dance song. Melody takes a more peaceful turn near the end.
16. (4:07)—Another slow, psychy banger. Apparently a reprise of track two. Slow fadeout.
17. *(3:30)—Beatless. Terrifying lo-fi bass drone and scary, woozy drones alongside. Like something from the Mulholland Drive soundtrack—had to check to make sure it wasn’t a sample. What a great, dour ending.