Anxious

German producer Mike Bierbach, aka Rødhåd, makes electronic music that’s often best suited to headphones. Though it has a powerful rhythmic drive, it’s better for walking around observing the world (warily) than dancing. Anxious lives up to its title with subtle sound effects and a broad stereo field full of carefully placed elements that get the listener’s nerves jumping, while the huge, pounding drums can feel more like restraints than impetus. At the album’s midpoint, tracks like “Glimmer Of Light” and “Target Line” are almost dancefloor-friendly, but you wouldn’t necessarily want to visit the kind of club that might play them.