Awake

Editors’ Notes Low-lit grooves meet high drama in the swooshing, swirling ambient-ish music of Tycho. The Bay Area producer’s fourth album Awake mixes layered guitar strum, electric bass, and electronic wash with beats that are chilled-out but emphatic too. The panoramic title track starts the show in a melancholy mood that soon progresses toward brightness (“Montana”) and, in time, drifting serenity (“Dye”). Gripping melodies and loud-quiet dynamics cribbed from post-rock set up a sense of suspense teased out in deft and diverging instrumentals, each of which seems to tell a story of its own.