Glasgow-born, Berlin-based producer Rudi Zygadlo specialises in the intricate, the knotty and the ornate. 

Zygadlo’s Planet Mu debut, 2010’s Great Western Laymen, was a frenetic affair; even its slower moments were painted in fluorescent colours and full of curious sonic tics. Last year’s lacquered ‘Achtung!’ EP for Pictures, meanwhile, saw him up the glam count, nodding towards the likes of Bowie and Queen. Zygadlo is returning to Planet Mu for his sophomore full-length, Tragicomedies, and the album is available to stream in its entirety below.

Tragicomedies adheres to an increasingly familiar trajectory (cf Wild Beasts, The Horrors, These New Puritans) of following up an unrestrained, occasionally hysterical debut with something much more refined and elegant. Rather than the playpen electronica of yore, Tragicomedies specialises in ultra-processed chamber-pop; the record is best understood as a sort of madcap younger brother to Grizzly Bear’s exercises in machine-engineered pastoral. The exuberance is still there, but Tragicomedies is undoubtedly a more mature second outing from an artist with legs. [via Dummy]