Combining projects into something of an experimental double EP, the ambient-tech Damase (Jeff Bye) and flowing synthesis of Manican Dream (Bye and Nathaniel Earl) assembles a digestible and diverse local sampler. Manican’s side A and lone track, “Chaos Is,” builds and folds over itself, swimming in boiling clangs that give way to agitated string strums and mechanical warbling. Only a kick drum grounding buoyant ethereals, Damase’s “True Color” blends ambience and techno into a subtle disorientation, nothing quite in lockstep. “Polarflex” clicks and ticks off time lost to the fade, wobbling never too far from the axis.

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This article appears in February 24 • 2017.

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Kahron Spearman is a journalist and writer with bylines including The Austin Chronicle, Austin Monthly, Consequence of Sound, Texas Highways, and the London-based journal The Break-Down. He currently serves as Senior Editor at Atmosphere TV.