Album: Azari & III, Azari & III (Loose Lips)

Set to induce Proustian rushes of amyl nitrate is the debut of this Toronto quartet and its loving homage to early house music. All diva froideur and drum machine snap, it nevertheless transcends pastiche via a pervasive air of murky ambiguity: throughout, euphoria is freighted with anxiety, while straight-arrowed floor-fillers give way to burrowing, curlicuing phantasms. "Tunnel Vision", in particular, is a hypnotic exercise in clubland claustrophobia.