#ben vida

If the whole record was as breakneck as its most breathless stretches, it would quickly become disorientating and exhausting. Thankfully the trio are smart enough to modulate the music’s intensity across the album’s 40 minutes. After the brisk, ear-grabbing one-two of “Open the Door, Joey” and “Q & A,” “Wanderers” is a welcome change of pace, dialing back the tempo and introducing some smoky Middle Eastern-tinged mystery. While the majority of the tracks are intensified by Vida’s buzzing electronics, the title track pares back his synths to sparse hissing and bubbling, occasionally accenting the flow rather than raising it to a boil. On “22º Halo,” Stardrum is the player taking a back seat, peppering the space with tumbling toms rather than driving the music forward with gusto.

Each track exhaustively explores its own distinctive terrain, ensuring there’s plenty of engaging scenery across the album’s runtime. The only facet that feels a little lacking is the players taking more risks within the project’s rigorously defined parameters. Given this is their debut outing together, it’ll be exciting to hear where they venture next.