Sushi

On 2011′s Far Side Virtual, James Ferraro specialized in gleaming surfaces: Bright tunes played on ultra-bright neo ’80s synths, festooned with FX that alluded to the sonic detritus of digital life (the squeal-pop that announces you’ve logged onto Skype, for instance, which ends Far Side‘s title cut). Sushi sounds more deliberately broken, like a cross between Machinedrum’s Room(s) and old Prefuse 73 – arrangements that halt and stammer a la Chicago juke (“Playin Ya Self”), crumple up old house music (“Baby Mitsubishi”), and push hip-hop through a crisply fluttering laptop sieve (“Jet Skis & Sushi”). Ferraro initially planned on calling this album Rainstick Fizz Plus, then Shoop2DaDoop – jokey names that get to the geeked-out party spirit embodied by the likes of “SO N2U” (clap-happy and funky, a la Si Begg’s late-’90s Buckfunk 3000 releases) and the sideways skank of “Flamboyant.” It’s silly, of course – but it moves anyway.