Album Review: Maribou State - Portraits

The idea of Maribou State is decent enough — moody electronica meets stoned live jamming in a studio environ — but their debut recalls a sorry time in electronic music history when cafés and decaying bricked hipster record stores became overstocked with $5 CDs of entry-level bedroom IDM soul with mumbling vocals and a hint of urbania.

Say More is a melancholy high lowlight but there’s little else to back up the hype. Portraits is loaded with over-familiar pulsing house grooves and skippety beats and merely fills a gap for anyone who can’t be bothered to Spotify Kitsuné’s compilations.