Crunchy, melodic IDM Braindancers and vaporwave nostalgia from Chicago’s longtime scene player and Merck veteran, Proswell, taking a debut bow on CPU

Currently gassed on a second wind which has seen him release on Schematic, Proswell specialises in a personalised balance of late ‘90s/early ‘00s electronica, with fine nods to the sorts of nostalgia for ‘80s digital synth pop and commercial music pursued by the contemporary vaporwave scene.

He’s at best in the album’s two complex opening workouts, each taking up to and over 9 minutes to say their piece with ribboning lines of bittersweet melodic thought and nimble drum programming, at best in the ‘80s power drums of ‘Pagartais II’, while ‘Pagartais III’ draws zig-zagging laser lines between Dâm-Funk and Squarepusher, and the more concise 4th part probes a playful sort of funk reminding of vintage Astrobotnia.