Actress has managed to create a uniquely identifiable sound in electronic music. It’s dark and and amorphous sound seems to contradict the locked loops of the instruments themselves.

On listening to their complete albums, these techniques create works that have a strong mood. I have found it captivating when in the right mindset. It has kept me returning to them over the years as their subtleties worm their way with time into my subconscious.

I can see that being the case with the most recent Actress album, “Karma & Desire.” Fragments of the record already loop around in my head from time to time; one of them being the piano line on “Leaves Against The Sky.”  It follows the same off kilter production that his work is known for, but with an unusually up tempo driving kick drum in sections.

Listen to “Leaves Against The Sky” and let it sit with you for a few days. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to return to its distinctive opaqueness to try and grasp onto what makes the track so compelling:

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My favorite work from Actress is his foray into minimal electronica. Over the past several albums they have always been their highlights and Blue Window is another example.

The lo-fi tape sound mixed with the instrumentation in Blue Window makes it highly reminiscent of Aphex Twins Selected Ambient works album and could easily fit on it with no problems. A plucky synth line is driven along by basic shuffling electronic drum patterns that do a lot with very little which is surprisingly hard to achieve:

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