Sensorimotor

From his early releases as Lusine onward, Jeff McIlwain's electronic explorations make up one of the more diverse discographies of the past decade and a half. Effortlessly blurring the lines between techno, electro-pop and experimental composition, the Texas-raised/Seattle-based producer's arrangements are meticulously constructed, but also filled with emotion and soul. With an introspective turn that's hinted at in the record title, Lusine's fourth album for Ghostly sees McIlwain diffusing the pop-leanings of 2013's The Waiting Room with opaque, brush-stroked melodies washing over these new buoyant productions. Sensorimotor is a visceral album, with gorgeous opener "Canop"” slowly building into an empyrean cloud of music box chimes and an amorphous thrum. The following "Ticking Hands" is just as beguiling yet also more formed, with the processed melancholy vocals of McIlwain and his wife Sarah filtered into a chilling lament that unfolds over the song’s light skitters and Kraftwerkian pulse. Sensorimotor finds other past Lusine collaborators returning as well: Benoit Pioulard's narcotic croon loops into a swirling arpeggio during "Witness," and Vilja Larjosto's sun-kissed vocal melodies are spliced and splayed across the steady pulsing bass and fluorescent synth pads of "Just a Cloud," and later on "Won’t Forget."