This record is a departure for Prefuse 73, aka Guillermo Scott Herren. The overtly feminine theme, from the voices to the artwork, creates a more poetic, or even spiritual feel to the 18 track set. Herren concurs: “This record is a weird one for me. The process features all women vocalists and voices and the music was recorded very differently from how I normally work.”

So the glitches, disjointed rhythms and droplets of digital remain, only this time they work to a new canvas. Each title begins with ‘The Only’, and among the many tracks here lay the angelic, haunting and heavenly voices of various sirens and singers. One of the standouts is My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Wordon on ‘The Only Hand to Hold’. Her almost operatic tones double up across warm percussion, manipulated guitars and a constant murmuring backdrop.

Such moments are a world away from Herren’s hip hop infused back-catalogue, becoming more filmic yet managing to maintain the innovator’s trademark of blips, clicks and twitchy beats. It’s a clever trick to have pulled off, and when the Zola Jesus fronted ‘The Only Direction in Concrete’ twists and turns in a warped vortex – the singer wailing powerfully in the sub-text – it is safe to say this still has the Prefuse edge.

Another notable moment is with the late Trish Keenan from Broadcast on ‘The Only Trial of 9000 Suns’. Like an experimental piece of ambience, the track has a heart-beating bass drum and echoed pieces of keyboard and noise, with Keenan’s whispered vocal floating slowly within.

Yet other highlights are Prefuse 73 going it alone, though keeping close within the themes of the record. The outstanding ‘The Only Repeat’ is a celestial calling. This time the voices are presumably sampled and looped across Herren’s spectral turns and otherworldly twists. As a Prefuse 73 album this stands as one of his finest hours. HG