Intrusion - The Seduction Of Silence

Stephen Hitchell's full-length debut under his Intrusion moniker literally picks up where his last full-length—Echospace's 2007 epic The Coldest Season, recorded with partner-in-crime Rod Modell—left off. The massive "Empyrean" that closed The Coldest Season with a floor-friendly journey into dub techno was the album's most overtly Jamaican-sounding and beat-laden track, and the Intrusion sound finds its roots within its blueprint.

If The Coldest Season's was an updated take on Basic Channel's glacial soundscapes, then The Seduction of Silence sees Hitchell bringing the more explicitly reggae-influenced sounds of Rhythm and Sound into the present—including two cuts (one a chilled dub mix of the other) with the honeyed vocals of Paul St. Hilaire (AKA Tikiman). The Caribbean lilt present throughout the album (last year's mighty "Tswana Dub" single, included here, and the two cuts with St. Hilaire being the standout examples) lends a unified air to the proceedings. Hitchell slowly but surely increases the pace and intensity of the tracks from the opener "Montego Bay" through to the shuddering, staggering "Intrusion Dub" before pulling back on the reins with the slinky, sexy "Seduction" and then alternates between the deadly intense and dead mellow on the album's back half before finally concluding with the sparkling ambient coda of "Under the Ocean."