Apparatus

Stephen Hummel's fourth album under the project name subtractiveLAD, Apparatus downplays the occasional flashes of Orb-style ambient dance that percolated through previous albums like 2006's Suture in favor of a dynamic and musically satisfying blend of Fripp & Eno on the one hand, and the legacy of Kevin Shields and the rest of the shoegazers on the other. The ten lengthy tracks on Apparatus are largely about sonic texture, featuring guitars, keyboards and drums so heavily processed that they turn into nearly abstract washes of sound. In this context, more traditional musical elements like the extremely old-school monophonic synth melody that appears and then abruptly departs in the middle section of "Between Us," or the repeated tumbling guitar riff that climaxes "Decay as a Lifestyle" have an even more striking effect. Neither as still and becalmed as the first wave of ambient works nor as aggressive and powerful as the best work of acts like Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Apparatus fuses elements one might normally think of as entirely disparate into a seamless, enticing whole.