Jackson & His Computerband – Glow

A welcome return from Jackson Fourgeaud, who has been quiet since 2005's Smash. The results are impressively eclectic, taking in psych-rock on opener Blow, purple funk on GI Jane (Fill Me Up), blistering electro / post-dubstep on the magnificent, ceaselessly morphing Seal, and gothic R 'n' B  on Dead Living Things. On the more restrained tracks, such as Orgysteria, Fourgeaud displays a cinematic sense of space and structure, bringing in reverb-laced piano and drifting organ sounds, or wistful dream-pop on Memory.

Pump's stuttering electro references his past in the Parisian scene which birthed the likes of Ed Banger and early Daft Punk with filtered techno-disco married to enormous, towering synths. Arp #1's stripped electro-funk is abraded with whispering static, while closer Billy is full of complex rhythmic and melodic shifts. Staggeringly diverse, but with a unified vision, this album redefines 'mercurial,' and deserves a stadium-sized platform for live performance, like a more technically-ambitious variant of Vitalic. Essential. [Bram E. Gieben]