I Tweet the Birdy Electric

In 2004 the interface of glitchy, micro-edited IDM and “real instruments” was being explored in all kinds of ways, from more adventurous indie-pop to folktronica to jazz experiments. But even among all this creativity, this one album stood – and still stands – out. The British duo of Ollie Bown and Sam Britton had been increasingly diverging from their experimental drum’n’bass roots since 1998, but on their fourth album they really cut loose. The flutter and clatter of instruments and digital signals here probably comes closest to Chicago Underground Duo / Trio / whatever in its improv-led willingness to flow on and off the grid of programmed rhythm – but it’s not really jazz in any normal way. It exists completely in its own rarefied space, and its magic seems to exist completely outside of its time.