Time Incredible

Album Review

Reporter’s Time Incredible finds the Portland band coming fully into its own, delivering sleek and otherworldly songs drawing from dance, dub, shoegaze, and Krautrock with ease. The seeds of this sound were present in Dust & Stars, but Alberta Poon, Mike McKinnon, and Daniel Grazzini were still making the transition from their prior incarnation as post-post-punks Wet Confetti. While Grazzini’s guitars still throw a few angles into the band’s otherwise swirling songs, Time Incredible is much smoother and more hypnotic than any of the trio’s work under either moniker. Songs like “Geronimo’s Bones” are subtly compelling, with Poon’s breathy vocals pulling the listener into gentle beats and breakdowns that are more like rolling hills than peaks and valleys. Even when the band is more insistent, as on “Total Fascination,” Reporter’s sound is cushioned in splashy dub-inflected reverb and layers of synth that feel like a futuristic upgrade of dream pop. The band is at the peak of its dream-disco powers on lengthy excursions such as “Silent Running” and the delicately prickly title track, which somehow manage to be transporting and intimate at the same time. As challenging as it is accessible, Time Incredible lives up to its name.