Isares

If Ascend established Manual's Jonas Munk as a producer who should be half as recognized as Four Tet's Kieran Hebden and Fennesz' Christian Fennesz, this four-song, half-hour release for Static Caravan renders him deserving of equal recognition. Released around the same time as his collaboration with Icebreaker, Isares is a logical progression from his first two Morr Music full-lengths, with further development of crafty beat programming that twitters and creaks as often as it churns and shuffles, along with heavily processed guitars and additional textures of unknown origin. Each track is worthy of being singled out. "Horizon" is the most striking of all in its absence of percussion. The ebb and flow of the layers of treated guitars, along with an extremely buried, wordless vocal, recall early Slowdive B-sides. While also lacking a rhythmic foundation, "Stealing Through" is more of a vignette, with Munk playing a relatively prominent figure over a bed of barely present drones. Both "A Familiar Place" and "Wake" are early-morning, sun-kissed mini epics that threaten to make Munk's earlier highlights seem like mere stepping stones. At some point -- hopefully sooner than later -- this consistent, prolific producer will be thought of in more proper terms. ~ Andy Kellman