The Hunches
Exit Dreams
In the Red

From a distance, it would be hard to see the tiny gears and motors that propel Ben Daniel’s blissful experiments. Obscured in swirling puffs, flashing pastels and wayward echo, the initial smokescreen of Ashes Grammar could be chalked up to any number of nameless shoegazers blaring their album from the basement and through the heating ducts. Certainly the touchstones are there. The dual vocal performance of sisters Lauren and Robin Daniels recalls the celestial intonations of the Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser; the warped and warm rushes of synths on “Close Chorus” soothes like a faded copy of Loveless; the methodical patterns of pulsating electronics matched with a very human heart stand as populist as the Postal Service—but none of those signifiers stick. Daniels instead keeps his compositions in an atmospherically confounding state of flux, a place where everything blurs into one prolonged illusionary trip. KJE

On her solo debut as Fever Ray, the Knife’s Karin Dreijer creates an insular word of self-discovery. Her ever so slightly affected voice traipses over exotic icy soundscapes, leaving small revelations in its wake. It’s this balance of personal epiphany and Fever Ray’s frosted-pop countenance that gives the record its brilliance. As such, when she sings “I put my soul in what I do,” amongst the electronic nettles of “When I Grow Up,” she leaves no reason to doubt her. SS