Toronto-based duo Y’KNOW make their vinyl debut on Spiritual World. Following a digital single released at the start of this year, Why Now collects four new numbers on one side, and their corresponding dubs on its flip. Similar to label mates T3AL, whose Ashleigh Ball guests here on flute, Y’KNOW make music that sits right alongside the current vogue for tunes that blur the boundary between street soul and lovers rock. The sound throughout is super soft focus, something achieved with plenty of reverb and according to the pair “every delay box in the house.” They are, however, far more pop-aligned. These are sweet, light-hearted love songs, driven by N1_Sound’s drum machines and synths and carried by Bally’s cute vocals and contrasting big beefy bass-lines.

So Close shuffles, arcade game lasers blasting its version. Love Light is uptempo electro boogie, whose production nods toward the 1980s, NYC’s Funhouse and Danceteria, uptown art on a downtown dancefloor, yet still feels very now. Treat Me Nice is slower, woozy, wobbly and consequently more ethereal. Its dub demonstrating cavernous echoed keys, like dub techno tamed, and interwoven with Ashleigh’s wistful, spiritual woodwind. A shakuhachi-like Zen. On the seductive Plastic Plant the talented two twist the EQ into Mad Professor-esque metallic effects, which are offset by some fine Stratocaster serenading. Its stripped back counterpart then adds clipped rhythm guitar, clarifying the track’s underlying loved-up skank.

Y’KNOW’s Why Now can be ordered directly from Spiritual World.