Milky Ways

You may know Joakim Bouaziz from his 2007 album 'Monsters & Silly Songs', a sui generis fusion of disco, post-punk and pop that became something of an instant cult classic. You may know him for his remixes of artists like Cut Copy, Simian Mobile Disco, Annie, Alter Ego, DJ Mehdi and Royksopp. But whatever you think you know about Joakim, prepare to be very surprised by this, his third studio album.

Over the course of a tidy 51 minutes, 'Milky Ways' fold together bits of psychedelia, old-school computer music, exotica, electro-pop, blues, new wave, New Pop, Krautrock and more into an expansive, remarkably coherent album that refuses to be reduced to a single genre, much less a single idea. This is no pastiche: these are proper songs, and the whole album follows the kind of overall arc that's rare in a contemporary longplayer. Flailing power chords sound like a tribute to Earth or Sunn 0))). Loping grooves give way to scraps of melody that recall Captain Beefheart and billowing, ecstatic vocals that explode like dandelions - "Crystal choruses," Joakim calls them, citing his admiration for Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective.

'Milky Ways' makes sense in a way that's almost disconcerting. It feels less like a product of its times than some obscure platter found in a dusty basement record shop, the shrink-wrap greyed and the corners bent, but the force of the recording unchanged. It's time saved from time itself.