Priori

Montreal’s deep techno and ambient standard bearer is joined by Ben Bondy, James K and more for a richly absorbing hour oscillating between shine-eyed, rustic ambient and smudged pulses with strong allure to admirers of Actress, NWAQ, The Orb, The Connection Machine, Convextion.
A prolific and pivotal figure of the Canadian scene and beyond, Priori uses the windscreen canvas to play to all their strengths within a theme, fathoming the sort of crackly rustic idylls that feel like Burial on Constellation, thru to Lamb or Ulrich Schnauss-like ambient D&B in ‘Wake’ ft. James K or the closer ‘To See Our Secret Die’, and fluffy downbeat pop on ‘Moonstone’ with Ben Bondy, via nods to The Orb in the full sunk ambient dub house of ‘Learn to Fly’, and the starry-eyed bliss of downbeat Convextion works on ‘Ruins’. We’re reminded to earliest NWAQ and AFX in the breakbeat sashay of ‘Like it Shouldn’t’, and left heart-in-mouth by the thrumming stepper ‘Thick Air’, all pointing to an artist utterly in their element and approaching the platonic ideal of a proper deep ambient techno album for the 2020s that simultaneously feels classic but fresh.