Downtown & Brooklyn Only

Like Leaf labelmates Eardrum, percussion often proves to be the only aid to navigation through the densely packed sonic cityscapes of New York production team Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan. This generous reissue of the duo's first two hard to find albums, Aug 56 and Snorkelhouse (from 1997 and 1998, respectively), sees the spooked loops of the former draped in thunderous balloons of bass and sketched atmospherics. The latter takes something of a different tack entirely; though a bank of aural fog does occasionally roll in via "Two Endtables and a Telephone" and "Farm Show Complex," it doesn't obscure the entire album, with "Fresh 24" and "Between the Red Ropes" offering some respite with an easier to grasp, and often glorious, fusion of electronic form with hip-hop functionality.