Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: Professor Genius: "Á Jean Giraud #1" [Stream]

New Music: Professor Genius: "Á Jean Giraud #1" [Stream]

If Professor Genius were a cartoon character-- rather than a New Jersey musician, real name Jorge Velez-- he'd most likely be a programmer of time machines, big cosmic boxes with more than a passing resemblance to Danielle Baldelli's intergalactic DJ console. But Velez' real genius is in crafting interstellar sinewaves that don't feel stuck in their own sense of retro. When you've listened to as much Tomita as Velez has, it's probably not hard to come up with a reasonable facsimile of 1970s analog sprawl; far more difficult is to make it sound as relevant as Velez does. Following a 2007 release on Italians Do It Better, his Thisisnotanexit debut features three coyly poignant tracks that sound like Boards of Canada dissolving in bongwater, plus a Tony Allen-inspired remix from Brennan Green.