The fugged-out duo of Socks and Sandals are certainly prone to an unfashionable disappearance. The latest came after their samplethon of Herbert-ian proportions with the Shatter EP over a year ago. The follow-up, Rishi Saturn, sounds like it made up for lost time – taking less of a stride than a full-on leap from critical beats to minimal wobble.

Like the hints of ghostly whistles and xylophones on “Space Stuff,” Socks and Sandals sound far more willing to splice and regurgitate everything, a la Jan Svankmajer’s Dimensions of Dialogue. “Pura Vida” gives tech-house a good name by immediately locking into gear and toying with an indecipherable array of clicks, pops, and crackles. The same goes for the damp-Latin-droplets of their own remix of “Lucidril”. But there’s something I miss about how straight-faced these songs are – they’re so demur when I expect them to be completely off-kilter.

Microcosm / MCOSM1020
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[Nate DeYoung]