Maestro - Monkey Business (2018)

Maestro is now one of Tigersushi’s longest-serving artists, having first appeared on Joakim’s lauded label way back in 2010. Here they return to action with second album Monkey Business, which drops almost four years to the day from their impressive debut LP, Mountains of Madness. As usual, the French/Scottish trio has served up a skewed and stylish affair, in which hard-edged synth-pop and Italo-disco grooves are laden with tasty retro-futurist influences, from the minimal wave fuzziness of “Dirty Bitch” and Goldfrapp-ish rush of “K.I.M”, to the whispered ecclesiastical ambient of “Cleansing” (think of Moby’s 33-minute ambient version of “Hymn”, and you’re close) and jaiunty, spoken-word Balearica of sublime closer “Skyman”.