Mark Templeton

On Jealous Heart (a sort-of sequel to his Scotch Heart cassette), Edmonton, AB musician Mark Templeton melds an analog, William Basinski-like stutter with the dark electronic atmospherics of the roster of the Blackest Ever Black label or even Andy Stott, at least tonally. Meticulous production and skilled musicianship are brought together by tight-but-loose compositions whose apparent subtlety belies a deeper complexity that is at once soothing and unnerving. Several moments of sweetness, such as the buried vocals on "Sinking Heart" and the playfulness of "Kingdom Key," are there to be discovered, but the album is no easy listen. Full of achingly melancholic, processed horns, this record comes across like a coda for a broken relationship, just as Basinski's Disintegration Loops was one such offering for NYC, post-911, and Jealous Heart is no less powerful for it. In physical form, the album is limited to 300-coloured vinyl LPs, so you better snap one up while you can.