Whereas Rounds distinguished itself by expertly knitting the warm textures of wood and brittle timbres of string into laptop-conceived soundscapes, the Ringers EP suggests a conscious step away from "Folktronica," instead casting a forward glance back to collective points of origin- Techno & IDM. While Kieran Hebden references these liberally (along with a few splashes of Krautrock) on Ringers, this is no nostalgia trip, as he is clearly in the mood to play with the expectations related to these genres. On "Ribbons," easily the most memorable track, repetition and expectation predominate- the song, undeniably beautiful, seems to promise something revelatory but ends up delivering nothing but the lovely form of its promise, repeated over and over. Each track, in playing with expectation in its own particular way, is perhaps suggesting that revelation is never more than a promise, a sign functioning as both path and destination.
