Emanating from the digital cloud somewhere in the vicinity of Columbus, Ohio comes Dark Web. Orange Milk label head Keith Rankin’s solo electronic alter ego GIANT CLAW is back with an album that takes some huge bounds forward from the project’s earlier work.

While GIANT CLAW has always written music which is unpredictable, intricately layered and occasionally a bit high-concept, Dark Web sheds earlier prog pretensions in favor of a sparser, simpler palette. No homage to the cult of vintage synths and classic hardware here: most of the album was written and recorded exclusively through midi.

The rhythms and melodies skitter and bob around various modern urban music tropes. There’s a hint of footwork, some trap drums and snippets of RnB vocal tracks. The melding of plunderphonic sound collage and crisp, clean midi sound is meant to convey a sense of the confusion and sensory overload of the modern online experience and I’d say it largely succeeds. Is it Cyberpunk? New Aesthetic? Hyperrealist? It’s really engaging music and that’s good enough for me.

Dark Web is out now via Noumenal Loom.