Assemble

The sophomore album from New York City's Hi Red Center moves from poignant, nostalgic musical terrain toward a kind of pure, beaming, quantum velocity. Assemble moves in a clear, concise direction while somehow containing instrumentation that, here and there, seems to slide off-track, breaking into weirdly juxtaposed parallel trajectories. But for all of their esoteric and almost academic experimentation, a cheerful soulfulness comes through that distinguishes HRC from many of their musical contemporaries.