Tosca

It's been a while since we last heard from Tosca (three years, in fact), and even longer since they released a record that pricked the consciousness of downtempo dub connoisseurs. Thankfully, Odeon is something of an unlikely return to form. Opening with the atmospheric ambience of "Zur Guten Ambience", Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber move through their entire repertoire of spine-tingling, horizontal sounds. Along the way, they touch on folksy iciness ("What If"), alien dub-house ("Heatwave"), Roxy Music-ish art-pop ("Jayjay"), bluesy dub ("Mexiner") and, most notably at all, post-punk funk-pop ("In My Brain Prinz Eugen"). It is, of course, pretty smooth, but that's all part of their stoned charm.