Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Stephen Mallinders second solo outing for Dais further distills his signature fusion of minimal synth, oblique wordplay, and wonky disco into a riveting rhythm suite ripe for our Age of Escalation: Tick Tick Tick. Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity, loose systems of percolating circuitry and airless funk. Recorded across a handful of sessions at MemeTune Studios in Cornwall with frequent collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards), Mallinder cites no guiding aesthetic premise for the collection beyond cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb.