Compared to the expansive vistas that Hermitude would later explore, the Aussie production duo’s 2003 debut album sounds downright humble. And fair enough: it’s audibly the product of Luke Dubber and Angus Stuart honing their craft and learning how to record themselves. But all the signatures are already here, including wonky beats, lively grooves, and left-field samples. The pair’s instrumental hip-hop radiates a strong crate-digging vibe, with generous record-scratching and loving side quests into spacey dub and retro funk (see the Thievery Corporation-esque “Splendid Isolation” and tensely dramatic “Highway Burner”). Lead single “Cave Styles” opens with an eccentric riff on bossa nova and gradually adds more layers and stylistic flourishes, evoking early Avalanches along the way. The album isn’t entirely wordless though: like-minded rappers Joelistics, Ozi Batla, and Urthboy join forces on the title track, named for the symbolic gap between Hermitude’s native Blue Mountains and nearby Sydney. Less than a decade later, their 2012 album HyperParadise would earn the coveted Australian Music Prize—and a remix from a young Flume, who certainly learned a few tricks from Hermitude. And the duo has continued to integrate diverse voices into their work, most extensively on 2019’s guest-stuffed Pollyanarchy.