Central Market

For more than a decade, Tyondai Braxton has fine-tuned his unique approach as quite literally a solo artist. Working by himself on stage and in the studio, he employed guitar, voice, looping and delay pedals plus various found objects to create work that simulates the sound of a large ensemble. His live performances are as technically astonishing as they are sonically mesmerizing. However, on his Warp Records debut and second full-length solo album, CENTRAL MARKET, Braxton takes a radically different course from the orchestrated loops that had become his trademark: For the firs t time in his solo career, he's composed for a real orchestra. The result is an exhilarating mix of acoustic and electronic instrumentation; surprisingly pastoral moments give way to more clangorous passages that will immediately appeal to fans of avant-rock quartet, Battles, of which Braxton is a member.