The Field

Yesterday and Today sounds a lot like the Field's debut album, but who's complaining? Running 10 or 15 minutes long, each track is as sensuous as a heat mirage on a sun-baked freeway, full of delirious repetitions and conjuring more fantastical images with every mile. "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" uses huge chunks of the Korgis' song, while "The More That I Do" whips Cocteau Twins' "Lorelei" into a creamy froth. If the Field are a one-trick pony, Yesterday and Today shows off a luscious coat of fur -- and the stamina of a thoroughbred.

On the sequel to his critically beloved 2007 debut, Swedish producer Axel Willner arranges
unrecognizable samples into elegant dance music that's fit to be played at a velvet-rope
club located inside a cloud. Willner's skills are apparent on "Leave It," where ghostly
atmospherics combine with a cold-steel pulse for a groove both hypnotic and lighter than
air. But after a few listens, the charm of many of Willner's soundscapes fades: Th... More >