Vibration Animal Sex Brain Music

There are so many elements at work in Orchestra of Spheres' brand of "future funk" music that it would seem an ambiguous wash if it weren't so carefully calculated and specifically articulated. On their sophomore full-length, OOS' vibe is more rhythmically complex than on 2011's Nonagonic Now, and their studio approach is slicker, to boot. As a result, some of the former recording's shambolic spontaneity has been covered over by an increasing studio savvy -- not always a bad thing. Opener "Aby" uses rolling tom-tom breaks shouted through a megaphone, female vocals, layered percussion, and noise to create a chant-like calling-of-the-tribes vibe, but it's too clipped to induce it. In the next cut, "Electric Company," the trance-inducing groove is both a process and a goal. A skillful yet seemingly ragged blanket of squiggly synths inside a field of criss-crossing African, South American, and funk rhythms, chanted vocals, wah-wah guitar, and splattery percussion goes straight to the belly bone. ~ Thom Jurek