Woo / Arcturian Corridor / Quindi Records

The five parts that together make up Arc might come as a surprise to those familiar with Woo`s usual acoustic alchemy. They represent a more a machined musical manifestation of the brothers – Mark and Clive – Ives. Hardware heavens sigh, emitting laser-worshiping themes – constructed from chiming metallic loops set in racing, rapid eye movement, Reichian counterpoint. Interwoven with frenetic fretboard figures reminiscent of Manuel Gottsching`s E2-E4. In places creating an ambient atmosphere of sine waves and rave signals, and in others backed by chunky, dubby Orb-esque beats. A mini-masterpiece of trippy gated calm and techno tintinnabulations. Cymbals crashing in a hip hallucinogenic hop – part DJ Shadow and part Carl Craig doing jazz. I`m not sure when Arc was recorded but it echoes the synthesized psychedelics of sometime collaborator Ed Ruscha AKA Secret Circuit. There are also similarities with Fools` recent release on Music From Memory.

The brothers` rework of their 1990 track, Love On Other Planets, is a serenade of twisting tones and silicon-chip strings. Its glitched gears buzzing and whirring like delicate clockwork – again, driven by an Orb-like chug. Dublin’s Wino D turns the last installment of Arc into a pumped-up synth-pop porno. Its bouncing voice-boxed boogie full of puckered promises and flickering, whispered, femme fatale fragments. Essex` Ultramarine retool Part II as a sublime slice of shuffling, shooting star-gazing dub.