Mux Mool

Just as instrumental electronic music fell out of favour in the past few years, Ann Arbor's Ghostly International released (excellent) records from Gold Panda, Com Truise and Tycho ― three musicians crafting classic-sounding, rhythm-driven electro. This could explain why Skulltaste, the debut album from Ghostly instrumentalist Mux Mool, got lost in the shuffle upon its 2010 release. It's okay though, as follow-up Planet High School can be digested without a proper primer. The album's ten dirty bass, hydraulically placed rhythms come off like a more focused, implicit version of the Minnesota-born laptopper's previous work. Songs like "Palace Chalice," "The Butterfly Technique" and "Raw Gore" work equally well as toe-tapping background noise or absorbing think pieces due to their brick-thick layering and smooth-as-mortar structures. Whether Mux Mool is sweating and stewing over a single beat ("Cash for Gold") or allowing the mood to take control ("Baba"), it's clear that Planet High School warns of a career-musician-in-training, one that can already be taken as seriously as he wants you to.