Sort​\​Lave

If there is really a thing called IDM, its purest artist is Richard Devine, whose debt to Aphex Twin and Autechre (especially) he wears openly. Without them, he might not exist, certainly not in this form. The song titles here are Autechre-ish, as are the echoey and crunchy sounds. The programming? Bananas. The signal path? Baroque. The modules? Immaculate. What makes Devine a real keeper is his energy and élan—this music fizzes, even at its knotted bunching points. This 2018 album is one of his strongest because he has kept all the fanboy enthusiasm of Lipswitch and smoothed all of it out a bit. Devine’s work is a love letter to the machines and I think his best stuff is still ahead.