Released on kindred spirit Gold Panda’s Notown imprint, the generous five track EP Object Is A Navigator is a worthy follow up to its predecessor Modern Driveway, and further proof that what we have in the shape of Luke Abbott might be a man with a very special talent at his disposal.

It starts with the title track, a typically adventurous number that jumps between gently bubbling synths and rampantly disintegrating fuzz in a manner that would seem jarring in the hands of one less skilled. Though it’s a little uneasy, it sounds like music that’s doing everything in its power to hold itself together. And somehow, you side with it, and become friends.

If you’re sold by the introduction, you’re in for a treat, as its themes are expanded upon in both their excesses and shortages throughout the remaining four tracks. The following ‘New Buildings’ is a sparser and more delicate creature, though it still packs a bass that shakes parts of you you’ll have forgotten you owned. A tune that reveals its grittiness over time rather than slapping you about the ears with it, I sat listening to it in pleasant contemplation as possessions were dislodged from my shelves.

As evidenced on the baffling ‘A Short Distance’ (which I had to check on a fair few sets of speakers to be sure it was actually meant to make that sound – it is) he’s fantastically inventive with beats, but also knows how to structure a record as a proper front-to-back listen, and is aware that sometimes you don’t even need rhythm – especially when you’re as adept with spacious drones as he proves to be on the Tim Hecker-like ‘Silent Fall’. By the time exercises in the architecture of feedback and malfunctioning music box grooves of the closing ‘Overgrown’ have run their curiously pretty course, I’m convinced Luke Abbott can do pretty much anything with electronic sound.

People come to electronic music for a lot of reasons, but they’re rarely searching for warmth – or are at least very lucky when they find it. Luke Abbott has that rare gift of being able to produce something that sounds incredibly comforting with only the most cold and mechanical of tools. And that makes him some sort of wizard.

Listen to Object is a Navigator EP