Blindly listening to ginla's debut album, one would likely assume they're a British duo, given their infatuation with the types of syncopated breakbeats common to drum'n'bass and U.K. garage. As it turns out, the two members of ginla, Jon Nellen and Joe Manzoli, actually reside in Brooklyn and Toronto, and have spent time in numerous locations throughout the United States, Canada, and India (Manzoli grew up in Mumbai). Codex's 14 tracks drift between abstract sketches and dreamy electronic pop songs filled with swelling synths, strange echoes, and smudged breaks, as well as hushed vocals and delicate acoustic guitars. Tracks like "Between" and especially "Cub," which foreground the duo's indie influences, sound like Elliott Smith as produced by Mount Kimbie. Elsewhere, "Know Yourself" features prismatic chillwave synths, but the beat programming plays with slow/fast dynamics similar to experimental drum'n'bass producers like dBridge and ASC. "Crown I" is perhaps the album's biggest rush of adrenaline, with rapid, glitchy beats and a lovely, sprinkling melody. The song's sequel, which ends the album, is nearly its opposite. An exquisite, fluidly paced ballad revolving around a breathy duet of the phrase "I'll belong to you for the rest of time," it recalls a more spaced-out version of the xx. While this sense of weightless ecstasy works to ginla's advantage here, the album could stand to lose a few of its brief, formless experiments such as "Iridescent" or "Making Time." Still, Codex is a highly original, frequently thrilling debut effort from a duo who have forged a fresh sound from familiar yet not over-used ingredients.