Christopher Leary's latest full length under the Ochre alias isn't really a true LP. It's actually a re-issue of last year's Death of an Aura EP with four new tracks to bring it up to LP length. That's not a bad thing though, at least for me; despite the less-than-impressive score that EP got, I found it incredibly enjoyable, and the new album changes the context of those old songs enough to make everything seem shiny and new again.

Leary made an impression on me with his engaging use of atypical instrumentation, in particular the crystalline harp featured on such tracks as "Circadies" and the new song "Dustlands."The arrangements of the various elements of this record are such that Ochre has a distinct sound, but avoids relying on certain parts (e.g. harp) to the point that they become stale gimmicks (for an example of this, see Geometric's last record). Though both of the aforementioned tracks feature the harp, the mood is very different; "Circadies" has a sort of dark esoterism about it, while "Dustlands" immediately conjures of images of central Africa.

If there is a standout track, it's probably "Raido," which pushes the harp into the background while warm, nylon-string guitar takes over. Everything about this song seems to be perfectly designed for emotive response, from the intermittent harp to the placement and proportions of strings and vibes in the background to the bridge section, a warm electric guitar feature that tweaks the rhythm and feel of the song just enough to sink a hook in the listener for good. This song exemplifies a quality common to the whole of Like Dust of the Balance, the ability for songs to come out of the speakers and completely envelop you.

The overall effect of the record to this point is created by clean strings and natural sounding percussion, but this breaks down a bit after "Napolese" (a variant mix of last year's "Napoli"), when "Pteron" introduces '70s analogue synth and wah-wah effects instead. The overall effect is not bad, but it is dramatically out of context, the way a track by maudlin of the Well would be on a Gregor Samsa record. This digression continues with "Lunar Suburbia," a much more conventional iteration of electronica that manages to sustain the record's momentum but fails to add much worth mentioning. It is during this track that I had my first and only negative thought regarding Ochre - "what happened to the strings?"

Those strings come back in the next track, "A Great Wave," which offers a very smooth transition between the two aesthetics with an almost gradient slide from the nu-swing beat and glowing drone chords in the beginning to a harpsichord and drum-machine riff on the way out. This all sets the record up to fade out gracefully, which it does with "The Balance," which seems to recap everything that happened in the nine previous episodes before being reduced to quiet piano and vibes. The bottom line is that while it isn't a perfect record in any sense, it is intensely beautiful for much of its running time and wholly enjoyable. This is neither an album nor an artist that you want to miss.

-Lee Stablein