Strange World Beyond

If the bubbling lope and echoed guitar stabs on "Cages or Snares" seem overly familiar on their own, their combination in the hands of the Piemont duo seems just fresh enough, and this blend sums up the appeal of Strange World Beyond, an album that perhaps wears out its welcome a touch by concentrating on one overall sound throughout, but never without style and accomplished elegance. The running sense of dub gone pop echoes throughout — not for nothing does the cover art focus on oceanic depths — but in thematic contrast to, say, the outright fear of Burial or the chilled beauty of Pole, this is giddiness defined, as "Lighter Than Seawater" shows just by its title alone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this sense of deep but free-floating energy shows up best on the stellar single "Carbonat," with its monumental opening and clever series of descending breaks, but if the rest of the album can't match that stellar high point it follows in the general footsteps well enough.