Set Mo - Surrender (2019)

The opening track on Set Mo’s debut album samples Brian Eno waxing philosophical over delicately pulsating beats. The electronic music pioneer (who cosigned the track) muses about how music, like “sex, drugs, art, and religion,” can be used to lose oneself by surrendering to it entirely. It’s a bold introduction to the Sydney duo’s slinky LP, a seamless, hypnotic blend of house, techno, pop, and more. The pair chose to ignore industry conventions by releasing one album track per month in the year leading up to its release—meaning only five of these 16 songs had previously been unheard. But the sum of Surrender is far greater than its parts. Each song stands perfectly well on its own—“Afterglow” featuring Thandi Phoenix is a velvety-smooth sunset banger; “Fault Lines” infuses sensual piano with bright disco beats; “Nightmares” featuring Scott Quinn is deep and soulful—but compiled as an album, they fuse to create something new altogether. Hearing the album here, in its new form, it's easy to follow Eno’s advice and surrender to these rhythms.