EXPENSIVE LOOKS - Dark Matters LP

Alec Field grew up in New York on a steady diet of Chicago house, disco, old Motown stuff and a smattering of his parents' psych records, as well as "trashy '90s dance." Dark Matters is his debut LP as Expensive Looks. It flows continuously across nine tracks, touching on elements of all the music he grew up on: hypnotic house, textured minimalism, and the gorgeous moment of musical epiphany that happens when a beat drops out and all that's left is the aural equivalent of taking a deep breath and staring at the stars. It's a dance record with the sort of scrappy, open heart that can only come from someone like Feld. Expensive Looks is all encompassing, it draws from all genres without border, pulling everything into one warped but pointed mass.