Balam Acab: Wander/Wonder (CD, Tri Angle, August 2011)

Shuffling underwater beats, swirling strings, delicate chimes — and vocals pitch-bent up to the verge of chipmunkery. Hey, what? Strangely, this works rather beautifully. The effect isn’t the least bit comic. I’ll admit that it took me one listen through to get over my confusion, and to forget the associations with the dafter ends of rave. But, in fact, this record drips with a loved-up psychedelia which is quite unlike anything I can think of (except, just maybe… if Alvin or one of his friends got bored of the pop career and decided to make a downtempo album, possibly produced by the Neptunes…). It is also utterly enchanting.

I bought this from Juno. They call it Dubstep / Grime, which seems kind of an odd choice to me, but what do I know?