Tunnels

Digitalis root out yet another dazzling label debut, this one a beautiful second LP of romantic synth-boogie from Kansas City's Brandon Knocke aka Discoverer. Operating within the realm comfortably inhabited by Hype Williams, Laurel Halo, Morgan Geist or Glass Candy, 'Tunnels' is all about the enigma of electronic desire. Whether that's unrequited robot love, utopian yearnings or something more esoteric is for you to ascertain. These eight communiques are just dripping with electronic emotion, from the feminized technologies of 'Lesbian Software''s cooing vocoders to the all-too-perfect closer 'Personal Clone', taking in the heart-rending melancholia of 'Amputee' and the querying, Heinrich Mueller-esque atmosphere of 'Blood Lab', or the harmonised, air-cushioned bliss-boogie of 'Tunnels' sleek mechanical motions, cheek pressed again shuttle window, gazing longingly over unfathomably complex skycity scapes. In much the same way Jürgen Müller's creamy imagineering implanted the most acute, uncanny sensations, Discoverers' 'Tunnels' affects the memory and the senses with virulent subtlety, totally recalling moods and emotions with a strange, scrambled familiarity.