Tangential City

On Tangential City, Pie Eye Collective returns with a second album that feels both more expansive and more focused. Released via Albert’s Favourites, the record builds on the foundations of 2021’s Salvation, pushing Matthew Gordon’s genre-blurring instincts into deeper, more conceptual territory.

Framed as an exploration of how individuals experience the same city in vastly different ways, Tangential City plays out like a shifting map of perspectives. Gordon’s approach remains rooted in experimentation, blending elements of ambient, dub, jazz and experimental techno into something fluid and constantly evolving. The result is less a collection of tracks and more an interconnected system of ideas.

“Land of Wood and Water” introduces that world with a subtle nod to the Taíno word ‘xaymaca’, imagining a sound that feels geographically familiar but slightly displaced in time. It sets the tone for an album that consistently bends perception, where rhythm and space are never fixed. On “Axiom”, Gordon’s quasi-scientific approach comes into sharper focus, treating tempo and structure as variables rather than rules, allowing multiple rhythmic ideas to exist simultaneously.

This sense of motion is central throughout. Time signatures slip in and out of alignment, melodies drift across shifting foundations, and textures emerge then dissolve without warning. Yet for all its complexity, the album remains deeply immersive. Tracks feel less like compositions and more like environments, encouraging the listener to move through them rather than simply observe.

“Pie’s Eyes”, a collaboration with Hector Plimmer, offers one of the album’s most playful moments. Built on spontaneity and shared instinct, it captures the organic nature of Gordon’s process, where ideas are discovered rather than imposed. Elsewhere, the record leans into its more introspective side, creating spaces that feel both intimate and expansive.

What elevates Tangential City is its conceptual clarity. Gordon’s idea of a “multiverse of possible experiences” is not just thematic, it is embedded in the music itself. Each track feels like a different pathway through the same landscape, connected by barely perceptible threads.

Despite its abstract underpinnings, the album never feels detached. There is a warmth to its textures, a sense of human presence within the circuitry. It is music that invites surrender, asking the listener to let go of structure and simply exist within its shifting logic.

With Tangential City, Pie Eye Collective continues to refine a distinct voice, one that thrives on ambiguity and movement. It is a record that does not offer answers, but instead opens doors, revealing new routes with every listen.