Lucidflow, Klartraum, Mind Craft

On Lucidflow, 'Mind Craft' is Klartraum's ten-track full-length, patient, dark, one that just sits there and lets you come to it. It's not an album that grabs you by the collar. It's the one that's already in the room when you get home, already comfortable with the silence.

Eason did most of the actual listening on this one. His read: the opener's fine, there's a real turn around the five-minute mark, it doesn't just ride the loop out, but 'Triple Split' is the one that actually held him, way more interesting than whatever the presumed single is. There's always a single, apparently, whichever one they'd play you first at a party, his bet is 'The Modem'. That's Eason's read, not mine, I didn't do the close listening here.

He also flags a vocal chop, real tiny, buried under the low end, that he swears turns up on a Klartraum release from years back, their signature at this point, though he'll hedge on exactly how many years, could be five, could be eight. Not a confirmed fact, just his ear.

My own favorite bit is the bass on 'Black Orchid'. That low end just moves, dipping instead of sitting on one note the whole track. Eason's take: written for the key, not just pushed loud. That's his read again, not mine, I can't hear that stuff the way he does, but I trust him on it.

Where does it live? Not an opener, this is 4am comedown territory, everyone still kind of awake, nobody really talking anymore, Eason's placement. I'd put it a little earlier myself: the sitting-in-the-dark-with-a-drink hour. Either way, it just sits there and lets you.

Ten tracks, no filler that jumps out, no big single doing the heavy lifting, no apology. Just Klartraum being Klartraum, patient as ever, and Lucidflow giving it the room to breathe.