Butter

Album Review

The artwork's liable to convert any room in which it is viewed into a makeshift vomitorium, and the music — from a Glaswegian producer possibly named after connected New York rivers, albeit with a vowel thrown in for Google-proofing — is absolutely "acquired taste" territory. Sometimes needlessly complex and, at its worst, goofy for the sake of being goofy — proper boots-in-a-dryer bizniz with shrill flotsam swirling about — these tracks can be as off-putting as they are exhilarating. A fearless scrap heap mutation that incorporates icebox IDM crunch, DayGlo synthesizer funk and, most notably, late-'80s/early-'90s R&B flourishes — exemplified by "Just Decided"'s synthetic horns and "Twistclip Loop"'s keyboard sprites — the album is nonetheless deeply affecting in stretches. Its best sequence, near the end, begins with "Tell Me What You Want from Me," where Art of Noise-level grandeur combines with a taut titanium-strength beat worthy of Swizz Beats, tailor-made for its open-hearted Dâm-Funk vocal. "FUSE" follows, bearing a disarmingly uplifting synthesizer patterns of drawn-out notes over rattling percussion and a strangely enhancing wordless vocal sample. "Star Crackout"'s spectral opera is the come down, which melts into "Allhot," where blunt kick drums and chintzy snares are an unlikely match for female vocalist Nadsroic's sighing advances. The album's first half isn't short on moving moments, either. It's highlighted by "Joy Fantastic" — nothing if not a modern funk slammer, quite possibly potent enough to turn André 3000 and Cee-Lo Green er, well, green.