One of the psychedelic label’s best artists returns.

FACT has never held back affection for the crew of psychedelic weirdos at experimental Chicago label Hausu Mountain and Tiger Village remains one of the best.

Though we listed Tiger Village’s candy-coated cluster bomb of an album V in our list of the 10 best albums we missed in 2014, the Cleveland-based producer has only now delivered its proper follow-up. Tiger Village VI: Effective Living tones down the sharp edges that made V such a memorable listen, but delivers an album that sounds sharper, deeper and more composed in all its sci-fi synth gooeyness.

VI often uses much softer elements, etching harsher textures into the tracks as memorable accents on ‘Imaji’ and ‘Jungle Gate’. Vocal samples even appear, applying sighs and garbled whispers respectively on ‘This Future (Inside)’ and ‘The Inverted Binocular’ to alternately soothing and eerie results. The best moment is unfortunately the shortest, the less than 2-minute ‘Swirl’ spends over a quarter of its run bouncing off the walls before locking into an Autechre-like groove that teases complete collapse. Instead, it just keep pushing until the track hits an unexpected blast of feedback-soaked guitar, ending with a melodic and cathartic surprise.

Listen to Tiger Village VI: Effective Living below and order it on cassette via Hausu Mountain.