Opera
Their band name may be a nod to the duo's previous sample work of classical tunes, but Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber keep things funky onOpera. Spoken-word snippets, disco beats, and the occasional jazzy drum break find themselves on top of the bass-y spine that forms most of Tosca's tunes. But things get really interesting towardOpera's closure. The eight-minute-long "Ambient Emely" sounds like it was lifted from an Atom Egoyan film: Middle Eastern flute eventually gets enveloped in a collage of voices and white noise. That track blends into "Postgirl," in which a chop-shopped series of voices begins to sound like Tuvan throat singers before the beats kick in. It's largely mellow, but there's more than enough experimentation here to keep things interesting.--Jason Verlinde