Bleep

Since their mammoth 100+ track debut Sent From My Telephone in 2022, Voice Actor has remained an elusive project between Noa Kurzweil and Levi Lanser. Now back on Stroom with their first record of new material in three years, they bring Welsh producer Squu into the fold, paring down the selections and giving form to their shrouded musical offerings, yet somehow getting even more mysterious in the process.

Lust is a continuous misty vibe, as if viewed through condensed glass where the LP’s full picture is only visible in between the translucent patches. Ambience is steely and textured with bitcrushed distortion, vocals drift out of the frame, tracks swell with hypnagogia and echoes of dub rhythm, then suddenly everything comes together with the rigorous sway and swagger of crisp percussion. It brings to mind the lofi esoterica of Posh Isolation or FELT, but is wholly unique with Kurzweil’s unhurried, enunciated vocals purring across the sticky tangles of dubby synths.

Everything here is done in a matte finish. Racing, reconfiguring garage beats and jungle adjacent rhythms are trimmed of the breaks to cultivate an icier air: ‘dyn’ exhales on a more micro level, ‘nekk’ shivers, and ‘rattle’ stutters with the flow of synths and slow thump of heartbeat kicks. The skittish rhythms of ‘look nice’ swish through waterlogged ambience from a distant memory; ‘barbara’ is scathing in comparison, its overdriven bass, staggering abstract beats, and uncompromising monologue threaded into the molten, dewy atmosphere.

Voice Actor and Squu team up to glide through prickly, enigmatic soundscapes.