Isolated Systems

James Clements, aka ASC, makes a wide range of music, everything from film scores to ambient releases to banging techno singles. In late 2020 and early 2021, he created a brilliant trilogy — two EPs and this LP — of deliberately retro, late ’90s drum ’n’ bass. It’s simultaneously a perfect evocation of music from 20+ years earlier (RIYL Photek, Witchman, Source Direct) and brand-new music that captures and reproduces the dark energy of that era. The beats on tracks like “Hostile Intent,” “Process Of Elimination,” and “Lost To The Void” are chopped into intricate collages, as the atmospheric synths chirp and hum like half-heard transmissions from deep space.