Second Woman

For anyone keeping track of developments in electronic music, the two men who make up Second Woman – Josh Eustis from electronic pop outfit Telefon Tel Aviv and drone disciple Turk Dietrich of Belong – just got a lot more interesting.

You could say that they’re following an IDM tradition that dates all the way back to early Aphex Twin and Autechre, skipping over a whole messy period where things got deeply unfunky and rejoining with the algorhythmic form laid down most recently by SND or Mark Fell. But Second Woman’s almost analogue hum (it’s entirely digital, by the way) gives their whole self-titled album a deliciously tactile and dubby warmth, which is appropriate for a label operated by vintage synth enthusiast John Elliott of Emeralds.

And while they never get all out on the dancefloor (more’s the pity), the rhythm precision is both rigorous and psychedelic enough to keep the spell intact throughout.