Pitchfork

Illegal Art just released the full-length debut of Normal, Ill.-based husband-wife duo Oh Astro, which is entitled Champions of Wonder. The cut-up approach of the album's "Journey to the Center" certainly would seem to align it with labelmate Girl Talk's aesthetic, in this case via disembodied snippets of male and female voices over an unwavering techno pulse, rather than Gillis' presto-change-o sample juxtapositions. As the couple's lulling babble carries on, some luminous string-like synths or samples pull over them like a gauzy sheet. The track has its glitchiness in common with the minimal techno of Canada's Akufen a couple of years back, though perhaps more oriented for home listening than clubs. For a more recent comparison, Sweden's the Field puts sounds together in a similar way on this year's staggering From Here We Go Sublime; here, Oh Astro are less blissed-out, more unsettling, setting controls for the heart of... well, probably not the sun, but who knows.

MP3:> Oh Astro: "Journey To The Center"
[from Champions of Wonder; out now on Illegal Art]