Seattle’s Orac label is back after a slight delay with a new single from Switzerland’s Quenum, who turns in what might be the best—or at least the freakiest—work of his career. “Acalanto” bats about slow, syncopated stabs like a cat with a cornered ball of wax as a thin, hard-panned curtain of bells and Latin percussion divides space in two, lending the distinct impression that something unknowable lurks on the other side. A chorus of voices chants an indistinct syllable or two every four or eight or 16 bars; never knowing exactly when it will come or which beat it will fall upon leaves you in a state of perpetual suspense, and the entry of a wobbly organ figure midway through only throws you further off balance. “Glasgow,” with a heavier hi-hat presence and churning, dissonant bleeps is a more determined track, but its beehive buzz and background grumbling is no less disorienting or otherworldly.

– Philip Sherburne, The Wire