Panes

The prolific Tadd Mullinix turns up again under his own name, just a year after Winking Makes a Face. Some of the whirs and crackles and muffled cackles make a welcomed return but, for the most part, the six-song Panes EP is a very different animal. The title song is a damaged dub ballad that refracts Tricky's most smacked-out material off a funhouse mirror. Incorporating some savagely tweaked vocals from Mullinix and a slithery rhythm, it manages to sound funny, erotic, and nauseated at the same time. The drum machine on "Inch" has a nervous, spastic jitter to it that is only exacerbated by various atonal effects and a foreboding texture that builds and builds until dropping out roughly halfway through. The closing "Alternating Currents" employs a racing, pungent synth throughout its entirety as the other elements squiggle, simmer, and flap. May the madness never stop.