"Can't Wait To"- Lunice

If someone were to keep score for producers Lunice and Hudson Mohawke after the EP of laser-guided trap they made as TNGHT, it might be a unanimous decision favoring Mohawke. Following TNGHT's release, Hudmo: hopped into the booth for G.O.O.D. Music's Cruel Summer comp. (including "Mercy"), added shrill blasts to "I Am A God", helped Drake go "swangin'" on the stuttering love song "Connect", and oversaw a kingpin meeting between Pusha T and Rick Ross for the guilt-ridden "Hold On". Lunice meanwhile stayed out of the spotlight, 2013 contains a scant two credits from him for Rockie Fresh tracks "Panera Bread" and "Superman OG". There's a Yeezus sample credit for the Montreal native, though it's as a part of TNGHT for "Blood on the Leaves". Following TNGHT's amicable hiatus at the end of last year, all signs pointed to Mohawke being the one to take advantage of his new found "freedom."

"Can't Wait To", the possible first taste of Lunice's upcoming album, obliterates those signposts and shreds any scorecard in sight. The initial vocal stutters invite comparisons to TNGHT's calling card "Higher Ground", though they're more sedate on "Can't Wait To". Hearing them snake across the track an apocalyptic Burial effort comes to mind before a dance floor groover. That's all but confirmed when deeper background vocals float over Lunice's jackhammering bass. They sound like a ghost from a Scooby Doo episode, if the episode was only shown once for being "too scary." "Scary" is perhaps the best adjective to use when describing "Can't Wait To". The glinting xylophone that comes in around the 1:10 mark is "scary." Instead of lightening the mood, it makes everything 10 shades darker. The frail keys in the final 20 seconds are "scary"; each echo makes the hairs on my arm stand up. And Lunice's prodigious work here is "scary."

Lunice's untitled album is tentatively slated for a 2014 release through Lucky Me Records.

"Sleep Sound"- Jamie xx

Last June when I had to a chance to see the xx live in Kansas City at the Uptown, a point I drove home in my subsequent review is how dependent the trio is on silence. In a song like "Missing" from 2012's Coexist, it's so brutally stark you can hear the proverbial pin drop. Mere seconds tick off the clock, but it feels like an eternity. In that absence of sound, you feel trapped. Anxiety can kick in because you're no longer sure what you're supposed to be doing. And then at the last second, Romy Madley Croft's luminous guitar swoops down to save the day.

In xx beatmaker Jamie xx's latest solo effort "Sleep Sound" there's no savior act. Granted the same sort of silence doesn't dominate the track, though there still is sublime tension to it. In his short write-up for Stereogum Miles Bowe calls it "room-filling" and he's right, insomuch as it is lines every corner of the room. A patter of drums and what register as faint harp plucks do exist, they're just never firmly in front of you. Instead, they hide in those aforementioned corners beckoning you into the shadows. Sampled vocals softly stutter "ooh ooh ooh" before a low-end bass rumble and jittery drum-machine pattern obscure them. "Sleep Sound" is the sort of track you'll leave on repeat, if only to discover everything that's going on. Silence is not just profound, it's alluring.

"Sleep Sound" is part of a double A-side single along with "Girl" that will be out May 5 via Young Turks.