Kelpe – The Curved Line

Such are the dynamics behind erudite, free-flowing electronica that with every addition we become even less certain of what year we’re in. Not that Kel McKeown’s fifth LP is deliberately retro, you understand, but the slippery crenellations and unsure footings of The Curved Line certainly imply 90s beats in a contemporary setting.

This is no bad thing – especially when the soft, squishy bleeps interact with veiled chords and loose, shake-down detail. Opener Doubles Of Everything slinks across shards of haunting piano before descending into its gloopy pay-off. Drums For Special Effects wears a rictus grin, while the injection of live percussion across Sick Lickle Thing and Canjealous introduce extra zing and texture.

McKeown toys with focus throughout this (while keeping abreast with the demands of bpm); the result is a mesh of understated but also unsettling timbres in which each dimension is pleasurably and irrevocably blurred.