Lusine: Inside Out
Ghostly International

Demonstrating his customary focus on elegantly tailored beat sculpting, Lusine (Jeff McIlwain) follows last year's impressive full-length Serial Hodgepodge with a quartet of new tracks. The sound may have changed little, but there's no drop in quality, making this a satisfying 20-minute addendum to the album if not a significant advance upon it. Breezily funky, “Inside Out” layers writhing fragments over skipping pulses while “Keep Me Fading” eases unhurriedly into its mellow groove and glitchy micro-organisms intermingle over punctuating snare splats in “Sunset.” Arguably the most interesting of the four, “These Things” opens laconically with whirrs and blips draped over simple house beats but gradually morphs into more propulsive bass-driven microhouse accompanied by hypnotically undulating chopped vocal samples. As in the past, the rich detail of McIlwain's music commands one's attention even in the absence of a conventional melodic dimension.

June 2005