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Cecil Frena emerged from Montreal's killer music scene as part of Gobble Gobble, inciting sweaty dance parties with manic glitch-pop. Bodysongs, Frena's first solo work as Born Gold, sounded similar: messy but straightforward, abrasive but still pop. Little Sleepwalker, written alone in the Arizona desert, is Born Gold's step back. Frena alters his voice with digital effects and "feminine" vocal techniques, delivering lines like "I couldn't shake the sense we were just circumstance" as an androgynous alter-ego, making Sleepwalker vulnerable where Bodysongs was aggressive. Catchy opener "Pulse Thief" eases listeners into an album so full of labyrinthian prog-tronica that when shimmery "Gauze Pillars" closes out the album, it feels like waking from a deep dream. Frena has learned the language of club and rave music so well, LittleSleepwalker would be convincing as product of the techno world — if it weren't so cerebral. Instead, it's both an homage and a deconstruction of those forms, which proves way more interesting.NINA MASHUROVA » NMASHUROVA@GMAIL.COM
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