First listen: sitting on the stolen Winstar van seats in "the den," our television-free hangout complete with tapestries, a big poster of Bob Marley and a lovely ceramic Hotei observing the proceedings. Kiss My Arp received a frosty reception in the den, my friends requesting other tunes almost immediately. Thus, Andrea was removed from the stereo. She became a fixture down in the den for a week, then two weeks, then a month. Finally, under the overwhelming pressure of Pitchfork management, I gently withdrew Kiss My Arp from its home and, pressing it to my breast, resolved to give it a good listen, no matter how my friends had disparaged it.

Opening with the soft punch of muffled trip-hop, it was easy to jump to the conclusion that what resided in the player was something easily compared to our pals Portishead and Laika. However, I was immediately drawn to the soaring strings that richly filled the background-- that's where my suspicions began. Soon, the gentle plucking of violins opened up "Clutching at Straws." Bursts of rattling bass followed and the atmospherics grew as minimal and claustrophobic as Autechre. "Hmmm..." I stroked my bewhiskered chin and contemplated the presidential race. Andrea's voice wrapped around me as wispily strong as silk.

Things weren't all soft and fuzzy for long, though. Three tracks in, "Breaking the Code" steps up the tempo and brings in beats still darker and more dissonant. What had been Andrea's silky croon was rapidly becoming an eerily beautiful siren song caught amidst the trio of musical elements swirling my addled brain: heavy drum-n-bass flavored beats, the mahogany richness of strings, and the aforementioned siren, Andrea Parker.

Still, as the album wore on, I understood even this premise to be fallacy. "In Two Minds" spoke to memories of Coil-- all menace and sharp synth beats offset by droning samples forced along by deep bass. Now comparisons fell from my fingertips like wet glue: Autechre, Aphex Twin (without the spasms, right), Spacetime Continuum, Photek, all those crazy kids that do so much with so little. But apart from the comparisons, I like it. Andrea's worked a subtle balance on this record. She walks the fine line between mechanical and organic, working sharp, jagged beats with strings, samples and raw production.

The album goes from starting out soft, to becoming tight around the middle, to mellowing back out at the end, with the reappearance of the siren and strings on "Return of the Rocking Chair." The cycle sounds natural and works well when listened to in full, repeatedly, over and over and over. And while not necessarily appealing to those looking for a full-on hardcore beat experience, Kiss My Arp demonstrates a panache and creativity not often seen in the likes of this genre. It will return to the den again, but as a regular player in our gallery of fools.

-James P. Wisdom