Faster Circuits - Apophenia

Apophenia finds Faster Circuits' brain-man Derek Almstead working through the murk and mumble of this sad past half-decade with the clarity you’d expect from this accomplished and variegated instrumentalist/producer. The eight tracks over its 36 minutes wield a generous pop sense whose methodology and melodic genetics find split parentage in Psychedelic New Zealand and, of course, the new traditions of halcyon Athens, Georgia Elephant 6 heyday Almstead helped forge as a member of Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Circulatory System (fill in your desired grocery list), and, veritably, as the late-era staff producer and mastering engineer for that whole crew.   Of course, Almstead’s mixture incorporates tellingly exotic stuff: a becalming trip to Eno’s Green World on the wings of alien synth textures and the lonely here-and-there pulse of an acoustic piano; a wind-blast of the amphetamine time-dust from Conny Plank’s AM-1 mixing console; a visit to the odd salon of Arthur Russell, where