Andy Human and Sam Lefebvre began writing and recording Desire Choir in 2021. They biked to a West Oakland rehearsal space and tracked drums and bass to an old tape machine. It was an accretive process, initially disoriented from live performance. Influenced by a "communist interpretation of collective music" and the variable post-punk and dub combinations of the On-U Sound label, as they write in a pamphlet companion to the album, Non Plus Temps emerged as more singers and players sought affinity amid the pandemic-era social isolation and unrest.The result joins various instruments (sax and saz, synths and bells) and production techniques in a sound like the "broken headlight sky" mentioned in "Endless Jetty Night," the nervy, Residents-like meditation on coastal subduction zones closing the A-side. Album opener "Continuous Hinge," with vocalist Amber Sermeno, is a backbeat beaded with Stanley Martinez's electric viola, while "Facts Sound Like Myths" introduces pinballing dub paranoia. "Reversible Mesh," they write, suggests a "self-conscious Eno affinity surrendering to Chrome."

Tracklist:

Continuous Hinge
Terminal Affect
Facts Sounds Like Myths
Five Birds Named California
New Way To Wave (Goodbye)
Endless Jetty Night
Reversible Mesh
Warm Launderette
Is It All At Once
Book (Dub)
Laika The Mongrel

UPC: 795853951394
Label: Post Present Medium
Release Date: 11.4.22
Format: Vinyl

Non Plus Temps - Desire Choir (LP)