Autechre

On opening track "LCC," rapid-fire, video-game-bang-shot beats set the tone for the latest effort from Yorkshire, England's Autechre. The lethargic Draft 7.30, from 2003, was the duo's slightest and clunkiest recording to date, hinting that after 13 years, Sean Booth and Rob Brown's goth-glitch dance party was running out of steam. By contrast, Untilted's more menacing muck is almost revelatory. For example, charged, superball beats stutter-zip through madman-designed conduits on "Augmatic Disport" until they're supplanted by a leviathan, dub-bass pulse. "Ipacial Section" evokes rubber-tipped tattoo needles relentlessly glancing off a robot's biceps. These innovations make up for the occasional busy-bee throwbacks to Autechre's late-'90s work (see the madcap, skittering "Sublimi"). Nevertheless, Untilted seizes our attention all over again.