[Brainmath]

Airhead’s only previous release was a collaboration with James Blake on Ramp Recordings sub-label Brainmath, the hushed “Pembroke,” so it’s not surprising that the London producer is often associated with the latter’s quivering tension. Indeed, Airhead’s sound has something in common with Blake and his friends Mount Kimbie. All three of them deal in the same whispered tones and micro-rhythms with an ear for ambient sounds and passages, but Airhead takes it to the extreme. His own productions lack the beat-driven linearity of his cohorts, instead inflating the center with breaths of hot air so all the sound seems to occur on the periphery, hovering around an unsettlingly silent and empty axis.

If all of that sounds a little abstract, it is: “Paper Street” is the lead single off of Airhead’s upcoming debut album and it’s not typical lead single fare. Airhead seems to dangle fragments of beats and bass lines over a gaping fissure so deep its bottom is unfathomable, only to be interrupted by fuzzy images of melody that slide in as quickly as they fade out. In its last minute, the track’s pent-up energy tumbles over into what sounds like a totally different track, then fading into absolute silence. Compelling and intriguing, a DJ tool it’s not; that’s what the B side is for. Ostgut-Ton label boss Nick Höppner valiantly attempts to find some solidity in “Paper Street” to seize on and fashion a beat out of: the result is razor-blade-thin, slicing rather than slamming. It carries the same gentle restraint of Höppner’s best productions but none of the softness, providing a unique, tightened, and highly functional spin on Airhead’s drastically unwound spools. While each track serves an entirely different purpose, both are equally captivating.