4 out of 5

Label: Adepta Editions

Produced by: Gabriel Covacich (mastered by)

‘Arcana’ is accurate: Jonathan Taylor’s Global Gloon whips up six acid tracks that seem to effortlessly encapsulate the genre, while being far from anything especially typical of it. That – alongside stylistic shifts across the years – has been the admirable GG brand, of making these tracks playful and accessible while still dense and weird and quirky. Both sides of Arcana lead off with tunes with synth lines that might as well be backing melodies for pop hits, but the IDM / grimey beats keep it locked to the indie electronica world. Notes of more typically “squelchy” and clubby acid rear their heads on both sides as well, but here again Taylor pokes and prods at expectations – the tracks never fully give into it.

This does somewhat lead to my ongoing criticism with latter-era Goon, though: most of the tracks, in their avoidance of diving deeper into genre, end up going on too long without adding much to the formula they establish. Countering this, each side also has one comparatively perfect track, with Thesques a particularly BPM-heavy Rephlex feeling throwback highlight. And, admittedly, even when the other songs get a bit repetitive, when the core grooves are this good, it’s easy to forgive.