Radian, "rec.extern"

Not quite electronic, not quite acoustic, Radian specializes in exploring the music in between. Like This Heat altered to suit more minimalist and modern ambient music tastes, the Austrian trio of Martin Brandlmayr, Stefan Nemeth, and John Norman manipulates and shapes found sound (like the electrical hum of Norman's bass) into chilly soundscapes whose construct sometimes only become clear as each track fades into the next and, inevitably, from memory.

Teamed on "rec.extern" with producer John McEntire (Tortoise, Stereolab), the group gradually builds rhythmic and noisy patterns out of the natural squelch, crunch, and squeal of machines and synthesizers, to varying degrees of success and intrigue. If the music is generally too jarring to serve as background and too abstract to serve as foreground, there are certainly melodies (of a sort) to be enjoyed for those with the patience to concentrate on the heavily treated instrumentation burbling beneath each song's surface.

Much of the group's appeal potentially stems from one's predilection for glitchy crackling and static, but the stop-and-start stutter of "Jet" and "Etage 2/Flur" offer enough "what is this, and where is this going?" mystery to make the disc a worthy addition to anyone's collection of digital haunted house music and cavernous boiler room soundtracks. -- Joshua Klein