When scanning the track titles of an album, you know immediately from words such as "defenestrate", "pinozeek" and "yaak" that you're not about to listen to new music from Cher Lloyd. And so it proves with this collaboration from Dieter Moebius (erstwhile member of Krautrock pioneers Cluster), Tim Story (Lunz Project) and Jon Leidecker (Negativland). Snowghost Pieces gathers constituent parts and influences into a series of electronic pieces that, while beautifully melodic, never consciously drags listeners to sleep. Flathead, Treadmill, Vex and Fracture Fuss seep with classic, fluid Krautrock lines, though they and other tracks also display sonic niggles, doubts and rusty edges. The result is a record that could have been, in lesser hands, two distinct and uneasy halves, neither electronic fish nor fowl. But Snowghost Pieces is more harmonious than brittle. bureau-b.com
Download: Fracture Fuss, Cliff Doze, Vex