Mirror Test 12″

“Mirror Test” conjures that rare mood between darkness and elation, contemplation and celebration, and drives it home with an infectious, jacking rhythm section which recalls the late-80s NY club music of Boyd Jarvis and Paul Simpson, and labels like Easy Street and Fourth Floor, but imbues the sound with a toughness and precision only possible today. Analog synth figures, glassy and angular, ricochet around the track, trading jabs with funky snare work and robotic, stabby chord patterns to create a hook-laden machine groove which demands repeated listening.

The record’s B-side feature, “Replace Yourself,” is the subtler, dreamier, more futuristic of the two. Unmistakably urban with its swinging, bottom-heavy groove and strange, architectural chord work, it seduces and transports. “Replace Yourself” dares you to do exactly that.