M. Caye Castagnetto - Leap Second (2021)

Peruvian-born artist M. Caye Castagnetto architects a strange new world on their debut album Leap Second, building songs from samples that clash soft, organic instrumentation with murky electronics and surreal atmospheres. Castagnetto worked with musicians like Beatrice Dillon and Aileen Bryant in the creation of the source material for these wobbly, nocturnal songs, boiling down the sounds into the samples that make up Leap Second's ten concise selections. The span of time spent on the album shows up in how stylistically varied it can be from track to track. The warped, buzzy instrumental "Slippery Snakes" wiggles around like a demented take on surf music, with rock instrumentation battling agitated electronic noise the entire time. Moments later, a mostly wordless "Mi Mentira" floats in a hazy dusk, with an airy guitar loop, rustling drums, and eerie cello parts colliding with several burbling synth lines. "All Points North" sounds like Nico singing over an early track from Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice, completely breaking from the sound of the rest of the album. The mood shifts almost song to song on Leap Second. "Until" is a blown-out and brooding track somewhere between Diamanda Galas and the Sun City Girls, but Castagnetto also pulls out almost playful moments like the shattered strut of "I Invented Disco" and the darkly dreamy groove of "Hands on the Business." Leap Second feels like a filing cabinet full of layers and contrasting ideas, but it's surprisingly warm for how chaotically composed it sometimes seems. The album washes by quickly, and with repeat listening it becomes clear that all the strange detours and unrelated segments are connected by Castagnetto's curiosity and daring.