Genre: indie, electronic, brave new world, dystopia

Weirdo avant-pop with an ear for noise. I really liked Doldrums’ 2013 album “Lesser Evil”, and I think this album is actually more consistent than his debut. What most impresses me about Doldrums is the way in which he fits strange sounds into songs that seem like known quantities. Creative, disorienting, omnivorous music stuck in a dystopian factory. Step forward and enter Industry City.

Others: Clinic, Suuns, Panda Bear on ecstasy, Autre Ne Veut, Oneohtrix Point Never

Favorites: 1, 8, 5, 4, 9. FCC: 2.

1. (3:37) **** Busy, dark intro. Big distorted bass. Calms down for the first verse. Great beat with hyperactive vocal snippets.
2. (4:33) FCC. Sweet little ritualistic tom groove. Vaguely middle-eastern (or at least how the west imagines it) synth line.
3. (4:04) Uplifting keyboard melody. Turns into midtempo, steady march. Love the vocal touches on this track. In the second half a dubby beat enters in and out.
4. (3:34) ** Pitter patter drums. Has a bit of a UK dubstep feel in the instrumental. Lovely layered pop.
5. (5:25) ***** Shimmering tambourine…keening siren like vocal…gives me a Oneohtrix Point Never feel the way he manipulates the samples. Does he hiccup? Shit this is a cool song. Really unsettling and apathetic. Bassy breakdown before reentering with snare rolls.
6. (4:38) More of a straightforward indie-electronica vibe. Catchy stuff…nice little harp samples.
7. (0:48) Eerie short instrumental. Could be used to segue into next track.
8. (4:31) ***** Warped vocals. Queasy bass. Gets frantic…definitely a fan of when he lets his voice become ragged. Holly Herndon-esque glitched out vox. Doldrums breaks up with Siri. So campy and I love it. One of my favorite tracks of 2015 so far.
9. (5:01) ** Seascape field recordings. Assembly line beat. Paranoid, claustrophobic. Bit of an acid house feel.
10. (5:06) Loop trickery like track 5…“how can I be nostalgic for something I never had?”. Drifting…relatively calm. Delayed vox. Peaceful ambient finale.