"VASSEL MYLER" AND "Architects of Fear," from Ousia's near-impenetrabledebut, take wicked drum'n'bass rhythms and bury them deep in walls of distortionand oceans of ambient opacity. Electronic music's funk energy is subjugatedby mounds of sounds to the point that you're almost made to feel that themusic's black roots are being forcefully denied. Which isn't quite thecase. Like the new Spring Heel Jack and the much-vilified collage-hop workof DJ Spooky, this is funk-derived music that seeks out roots in Europeanmodern classical and the lotion-like experimentalism of Brian Eno or MortonSubotnick. But unlike Eno's Music for Films, or Mort's SilverApples of the Moon, Ousia has bite. And it also has a beautiful edgethat keeps the tracks from becoming a mere stoner symphony, or, as theclichéd dis goes, "aural wallpaper." The funk is in the house, butit's chained up in the basement. 

On Why Is That a Four?, the age-old maxim "it's got a great beatand I can dance to it" is recast as "it may or may not have a beat at all,but I can read to it." Even if the disjointed groove on "Why Is That aFour?" or the 12-minute head-rub "Angular Pillow Gate" do suggest groovemusic, the main idea here is distance. You're not so much drawn into theslow pull of "Future Perfect" and the trance-like "Outer Perimeter" asyou're asked to confront them. Once that's accomplished, then youcan let yourself get drawn in (though you'll never come close to grooving).And while overcoming that confrontation stage (i.e., understanding theseincredibly cerebral songs) may require an adroit application of the HeisenbergUncertainty Principle, the reward is worth the math.