#29 Feat. Staff Picks in Electronica

Noumen returns to Central Processing Unit after a six-year absence with Altum. This bumper record, the Ukrainian artists fourth release for the Sheffield label and first since 2019 double-LPObscurium, serves to remind us all why Noumens music has been lauded by the likes of Mixmag and Resident Advisor in the past.Altumis a consummate piece of contemporary electronic production, a technoid exploration of outer-edges electronica that nods to genre greats like Autechre while still maintaining its own unconventional charm. Across well over an hour of music here we find Noumen repeatedly playing punchy mid-tempo beat work off of some more cerebral tuned synths.Altumkicks off with the epic Oion - beginning in that Autechre/AFX mid-tempo zone, full of deep-sea bangs and whirrs, the track slowly builds to a final stretch of delay-drenched keys which set us free amidst the outer cosmos, almost Sun Ra-style. Its a perfect liminal-space roller and an apt scene-setter forAltum. Oion provides a blueprint for several of the albums other highlights - plenty of the joints here adopt that same approach of hitting hard with the drums and soft with the synths. Second track Splitter takes on the baton from Oion while souping up the kick to warehouse levels; the beats in Far Wind splutter like a needle skipping on a mid-90s Tresor drop; Fate Carette, all eerie looped synth leads, is a highlight as the album enters the home straight. The rhythm production (which, it should be noted, is exemplary throughoutAltum) is ratched up in intensity on a handful of numbers. Telemask displays a delightful breakbeat - if youd told me this was sampled from golden age A Tribe Called Quest, Id have believed you. Mid-section anchors Awe and Axis are glitchers in the Mike Paradinas mould, with the latter showing off some pleasing steel pan-esque synth leads for good measure. And whileAltumgenerally maintains a processional pace throughout, there are points where Noumen toughens up the drums for club deployment - Unveilness shows off a real chunkiness in the low end, closer Spurling Sign plays a satisfying rolling groove off of ever-layering synths, and the title-track is an alien machine-funker in keeping with fellow CPU electronauts like Silicon Scally and Cygnus. Noumens third album for Central Processing Unit is a pleasingly hefty double-LP which builds on the zany invention of acts like Modeselektor and Autechre to delightful effect. FFO: Autechre, Aphex Twin, Modeselektor, Bochum Welt, LFO

Noumen