At/Nu - Psi Grove (2014)

One of our favourite new labels pulls out another forward facing ace from vapourous electronic dimensions. Montreal's Igor Ivanov and Sami Blanco's AT/NU project is "half transcendence-focused ambience and half explorative, trance-inspired hybrid techno" according to the 1080p boss Richard MacFarlane aka esteemed blogger Rose Quartz. Their 'Psi Grove' debut is a mesmerising and deeply reflective mind-meld of classic electronic memes shaped with an acutely modernist tilt, rerouting the "neuro-vibrational" energies of New Age, '90s cybernetics and rave culture into an efficient ecology of lush textures and quicksilver rhythms operating in acres of simulated space. There's a melancholic beauty at its heart, manifest most richly in the two-part title track, and an organic pop/rave sweetness to the 2-step hyper-boogie excursion 'Shift', whilst dream-sequenced visions such as 'Tennu' and 'Nightwavs' imbue a beautifully human warmth and unpredictability to crisp, ostensibly cold electronic current.