Los Angeles’ Not Not Fun is one of the most compelling labels around right now, with recent superlative offerings from LA Vampires & Zola Jesus, Sun Araw, Dolphins Into The Future and Ducktails to its name.

The latest  jewel in the NNF crown is Psychical, an extraordinary new album from Ensemble Economique, an alter ego of California’s Brian Pyles (who is one half of Starving Weirdos with Merrick McKinlay). Ensemble Economique has already released one LP this year, the justly acclaimed Standing Still, Facing Forward, but Psychical is a whole different kettle of trippy fish. Based around spooky synthesizer drones that variously recall Demdike Stare, Ghost Box’s Eric Zann or Mount Vernon Arts Club and John Carpenter at his most gloriously hammy, it’s actually the snatches of sampled reggae chatter and tribal, Shackleton-esque percussion that make this record sound so uncanny and out of time. Opener ‘Hail’, with its suspended, heavily reverbed congas, is particularly effective, while the dense percussion layers and queasy guitar lines of ‘Forever Eyes’ and ‘Monsoon Clouds’ reimagine Coil for the contemporary LA desertscape and ‘Shacks Built From Plyboard’ approaches something akin to dubstep. Listen to clips here.

Psychical is just one of three exceptional vinyl LPs released by Not Not Fun this month, all with an “imaginary soundtrack” bent. Dylan Ettinger‘s New Age Outlaws is a fantasia of hypnagogic cop movie electronics with a strong 80s character that will appeal to fans of James Ferraro and Oneohtrix Point Never, and Umberto‘s Propechy Of The Black Widow is a horror soundtrack homage with shades of Carpenter, Goblin and Smackos, and an unlikely surfeit of bloodcurdling funk.

Psychical tracklist:
A1. Hail
A2. Red For The Sun
A3. Forever Eyes
A4. Monsoon Clouds
B1. Shacks Built From Plyboard
B2. Psychical
B3. Real Things
B4. Bonfires

New Age Outlaws: Director’s Cut tracklist:
A1 The Waterfront
A2 Shandor’s Dream
A3 Rico’s Pawn Shop
B1 Crippler Crossface
B2 Penguin Point
B3 Gordon’s Theme

Propechy Of The Black Widow tracklist:
A1 Temple Room
A2 The Psychic
A3 Red Dawn
A4 Widow Of The Web
B1 Black Candles
B2 Night Stalking
B3 Someone Chasing Someone Through A House
B4 Everything Is Going To Be Okay