(Warp Records/Inertia)

Björk protégé delivers the very warped goods on her third album

For someone who has remained relatively obscure, Iranian-born, British-based Leila Arab certainly has some musical pedigree. She dropped out of art school to play keyboards for Björk, was signed to Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label before heading to dance stalwarts XL Recordings (home of M.I.A. et al) for her sophomore album, then took a seven-year break to work on this, her third album (another label change here, this time to the legendary Warp Records, home of Battles). Warp have never been about pushing their roster to conform, and if you’re after nonconformity, Blood Looms & Blooms has it in spades: opener Mollie starts off with fuzzy trip-hop blips and bloops before drowning the unsuspecting listener in showers of glorious distortion and epic synth sweeps. Little Acorns is even more demented: like something a band of jolly gnomes would sing to you as they prepare to feast on your flesh. Other highlights include Mettle, a cheesy space opera on acid run through a Roland 808; Deflect, a fuzzed-out Smoke City cover from Bangladeshi street orphans; and an utterly surprising polyrhythmic cover of Norwegian Wood. If you like your music easy and unperplexing, stay the fuck away from Blood Looms & Blooms, as it will break your head. If you like having your head broken, then if you haven’t purchased this already by virtue of its label, go forth and do so immediately. It will hopefully do for leftfield downtempo dance what Battles did for math rock.

****½

CHAD PARKHILL

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