Psychic

A work of intriguing extremes and sometimes-jarring contrasts, Psychic makes the most of Chilean-born electronic music auteur Nicolas Jaar and guitarist/keyboardist Dave Harrington’s divergent but complementary musical instincts. As the duo DARKSIDE, the two explore sonic vistas that touch on avant-garde minimalism, primal blues, dubstep, and the odder fringes of techno pop with a feel for texture that gives their work an almost physical presence. An eerie sort of grandeur (and a droll sense of humor) is evident in tracks like “Heart” and “Paper Trails,” built around furtive vocals, insinuating guitar riffs, and brittle, insistent beats. There’s an evocative, soundtrack-like quality to a number of these pieces, particularly the sinister, slowly unfolding “Golden Arrow” and the itchy film noir–esque snippet “Greek Light.” At times, the duo seems to be both celebrating and subverting familiar genres, as the fragmented ‘70s-style funk of “Freak, Go Home” indicates. Psychic ends up in a spacy zone with “Metatron,” a coolly hypnotic number that’s a fragile as glass and as enveloping as North Atlantic fog.