Released as a companion album to the more ambient-oriented Midnight on Earthship, Falling Up’s Hours is an ambitious song cycle with an intriguing sci-fi theme. Singer/multi-instrumentalist Jess Ribordy is the central presence here, guiding listeners through an oblique but compelling tale of adventurous orphans exploring a futuristic landscape; it suggests George Orwell crossed with C.S. Lewis. If the story (fleshed out in more detail on an audiobook available separately) remains shadowy, the music here is bracing in its fusion of metallic riffage, surging electronica beats, and keening, folk-influenced melodies. The oscillating synths and muscular drumwork of “The Contract” set the keynote for the album as a whole. The moods range from hypnotic (“The Outsider”) to sinister (“Blue Ruins”) and spacy (“Intro to the Radio Room”), underscored by Ribordy’s insinuating-to-anguished vocals. The band’s ensemble playing is tight yet expansive, moving from a roar to a murmur on “Aeva and the Wavering World” and taking on prog-rock complexity on “Prillicians.”