Leash, "In the Leaves" (self-released)

Former Newaxeyes bassist/electronics-distorter Jordan Rundle (aka Leash) drops his new five-track mini-album, Wrest, today. When I say it's the bomb, I'm speaking in almost literal terms. The beats here will shudder the needle on the Richter scale; the atmospheres reek of pandemic catastrophes; the textures are damn near weaponized. This may all sound bombastic, but Rundle renders the ballistic action deftly and with zero clichés. (It should be noted that"Arrogance" offers a respite of desolate ambience.) If you dig Newaxeyes' rugged, warped electronichaos, Leash's Wrest is a logical progression, a gorgeously grotesque soundscape of post-apocalyptic splendor.

"In the Leaves" captures that mood with optimal excitement. As anyone who even glances at news headlines now realizes, we live in a time when a demented narcissist who has no common sense or Senate-confirmed Secretary of Defense blusters willy-nilly on the world stage like a poorly conceived character in a Marx Brothers farce. If most thoughtful people mope around with the end-time blues, then Leash is providing the panic-stricken soundtrack for those sentiments. "In the Leaves" is capacious post-dubstep sorcery, geared not so much to make you dance as it is to spur you to fight or flee some daunting, sinister force. This may sound hopelessly optimistic, but I can imagine "In the Leaves" scoring a tumultuous battle scene in a futuristic Hollywood movie. So much tension, so much release...