Stay Inside

Superior gauzy ambient-not-ambient from Brooklyn’s Ben Bondy, stay inside is curious for the way it capsizes expectations. Texturally it continually verges on the blissful, its layers of hum and fuzz setting the ground for chimeric arpeggios and washes of appealingly blank texture. Bondy’s mumbled vocals, fed through autotune, continually skirt disintegration, as though you’re hearing phonemes fall apart. It’s a music that’s always shifting, never quite graspable, but always compelling; the weepy indie-folk guitar of “starty” startles after the preceding five tracks, but there’s something heartfelt about Bondy’s reflective, resigned singing here, and the wash of Fennesz-ian texture that flows underneath is perfect. But the highlight might be the opening collaboration with more eaze, an artist who always brings beauty and focus to their work.