The proper follow-up to Brendan Angelides' self-titled
Eskmo album from 2010,
SOL -- released on R&S subsidiary Apollo, rather than on Ninja Tune -- is another collection of radically treated, densely layered electronic music that rejects categorization. As with the 2010 album, this material is best suited for solitary and deeply attentive headphone listening. Alien pop sounds lap, drip, creak, and swarm throughout. Angelides' vocals are as misshapen as ever, sometimes somewhere between those of
Matthew Dear and
Japan-era
David Sylvian. The relatively sparse ambient instrumentals, frequently unpredictable as they twist and turn, are almost as fascinating. Even the relatively tranquil sections seem slightly turbulent. [
SOL was also released on LP.] ~ Andy Kellman