Words by the ever erudite Adam Turner.

Wormbox – a  duo from Portland – have their first E.P. out on Bed Of Roses. The set springs into life with the throb of synthesiser and the tsk tsk tsk tsk of hi- hat and then a sampled voice talking about, yes, his New Age Cat – a cat that drinks crystal water and meditates in the bathroom. Layers of brightly coloured keys kick in over the drums, and Wormbox’s promise of psychedelic dance music realised. ‘I have a great cat’, a woman says during the breakdown – the protracted pulses pushing on for seven, eight, nine minutes.

The Defender Of Heaven begins with wood blocks and a crunching drum break – slices of noise, and a distorted vocal, a robot FXed into infinity, joining in. Just as it seems to be locked into a manic mechanical pattern, a breakdown brings a parting of the clouds, plinkyily programmed synths, chimes and sweet synthetic warbles. This electronic pastoral idyll is then swamped again by the crash of those drums and the mangled android, but the pretty melodies pitter patter away on top.

Remixes come via Thomass Jackson and Coast2c. Jackson swings New Age Cat, taking the track for a spin round the dance-floor. A long intro, followed by a heady groove – chopped up sounds forming an increasingly pleasant trippy swirl. Coast2c strips The Defender Of Heaven down, twisting it inside out, before snapping it all back together for the final minute, throwing it suddenly, sharply, into focus.

Wormbox’s A New Age Cat is out now, on a Bed Of Roses.

You can find more pukka prose from Adam Turner over at his own brilliant blog, The Bagging Area.