Spacek

You have to wonder if the members of Spacek need orthopedic shoes, because this 2003 album contains some of the lurchingest, wobbliest grooves around. Giving their MPCs a few haphazard slaps, they bang out drunken, loping rhythms clearly in debt to J Dilla; what makes their sound unique is the approach to melody, using tinkling Rhodes and muted analog synthesizers to draw squiggly little riffs that imply more than they actually reveal. Well aware of the power of subtraction, they strip back and create ample space for singer Steve Spacek to stretch out and croon.