Album Review: Neon Indian - Vega Intl Night School

Alan Palomo's latest release as Neon Indian is his most engaging yet, capturing the claustrophobic feeling of the Texan artist's recent relocation to Brooklyn. 

The disorientating rhythms and textures effectively summon the elevated sense of confusion that moving to a new city inspires, equally weird and surreal, like Scorsese's cinematic After Hours. Palomo has recontextualised the early '80s synth sounds he draws on well beyond pastiche, and transforms them into swirling, almost Balearic grooves that are reminiscent of Toro Y Moi's Anything In Return album, mixed with the late night inspiration of Ariel Pink. Considering his early labelling as a chillwave artist, the controlled chaos of this album makes it a huge leap forward in his artistic trajectory.