Broadcast & The Focus Group

Birmingham, England duo Broadcast have recorded three highly fashioned, well-conceived LPs that hearken back to the era when albums broke from A-side/B-side collections to singular artistic visions. London, England's Julian House (under the name the Focus Group) records Max Neuhaus-influenced sound art that allows critics to use terms like "installations" and "episodic." Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age is a mini-album collaboration between these two highly stylized, idea-orientated artists in two- and three-minute suites, showing Broadcast and House reveling in space, letting pieces gestate singularly while utilizing style and mood as backdrop. Closer to The Focus Group's gentle ebb and flow than Broadcast's "ha ha" sound, Investigate Witch Cults comes across fresh to fans of the former and challenging to fans of the latter. Over 23 tracks, Investigate Witch Cults surprisingly never grows tiresome, leaving behind an LP that works best when you leave your eyes off of the track-listing.