Marc Richter's music follows no line but its own. That's why it's a disservice to simply call it drone, as Black to Comm curves in multiple planes. Released quietly late last year, Black to Comm is the proper follow-up to 2009's Alphabet 1968 and his soundtrack work for EARTH; it's a record that deserves more ears, one that reveals a new mystery every listen.
Fittingly, the video for "Hands" is much like the track itself, surreal and oddly moving as such familiar objects as ladybugs and snails are fractured by overlapping shapes. It's a little jarring when — amid clipping piano, electronic gurgles, disembodied strings and alien voices — the screen suddenly flashes a command in all caps, perhaps to take us for a moment out of Richter's world and back to ourselves.
Black to Comm is out now on Type.
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