The fascination for post-punk’s and early industrial’s icy and sometimes abrasive electronic experiments has obviously caught on to Warp’s Leila, as well. But, to be fair you could find traces of that in quite a bit of her past releases, as well. Still her fourth album for Warp is possibly her most straight forward and kinetic, yet. And, with Mt.Sims she has found the ideal vocalist for her dark and wavey tracks. His gloomy vocal delivery just blends perfectly with the stark rhythms and Leila’s hauntingly cold synthwork, sometimes bordering on the theatrical („In Consideration“ or the title track „U&I“). The aptly titled „Colony Collapse Disorder“ is the furious climax of the album with menacing hoover sounds submerged in a massive wall of sound. Leila has never been so threatening.

by artistxite