Follow up to Demand Full Automation (Klanggalerie, 2018) Simon Crab continues with motifs on dysfunctional modernity on Invisible Cities, this time off the UK-based Space Rituals label. When not drawing on personal experiences engaged in riot or his years as hub to former band, Bourbonese Qualk, Crab tackles ever dysfunctional modernity that yearns for a utopia but always grasps for dystopia. Continuing with a modus operandi that marries digital electronics to varied acoustic instruments first evidenced in as Bourbonese Qualk, On Uncertainty (Klanggalerie, 2001), Invisible Cities contrasts with more varied sounds that range from orchestral to whimsical to filmic to commercial to melancholic to jubilant and everything in between. Invisible Cities, according to Crab, is about the declining relevance of large urban centres to be replaced by something more decentralized--endless suburbs, perhaps? Tracks names “Stack Interchange”, “Edgelands”, and title track, “Invisible Cities” certainly conveys post-urban themes. The rather mechanical “Stack Interchange” is for orderly lane changes on major highways and the music seems to reflect that, ordered and structured; opens with pensive piano before giving way to rigorous percussion patterns and a domineering bass pulse. Perhaps the prettiest track, “Edgelands” is named for the forgotten industrial parks and the nether regions between nature and development while the music is a string and bass arrangement that suitably echoes the topic, one can almost conjure said edgelands in the minds’ eye. Conversely, the upbeat electronic “Invisible Cities” for it’s gurgling subterranean electro sewer pipe chatter, electro claps and beats, sounds commercial, literally the ideal music to showcase a new car or mobile phone. Darker sides to urban life are captured on “Kodokushi”, a Japanese term for those who ‘expire’ alone at home and it is some time before their remains are discovered. Music on “Kodokushi” is not unlike 80’s era instrumental Depeche Mode, but slowed down and ‘blunted’ with dubby roots reggae accents. “Kubat-Dreieck” and companion track, “No Further Action” are both homage to Crab’s activist/riot years, as pot/pan percussion is accompanied by electronic belches, that end to a robotic prattle continued on the latter. However, “No Further Action” is also an ethno instrumental nod to early Bourbonese Qualk. Two stand-out tracks are “Headless Day” and “Thirst For A Beautiful Mouth” because they are instrumentally accomplished, dramatic, seductive pieces and draws the listener to then be guided by spoken word poetics by Ksenia Sadovski. Percussionists, Fritz Catlin and David J. Smith both contribute to Invisible Cities’ extra layers of rich, rhythmic texture. This album is full of musical ideas and surprises. While Crab has always worked his hybrid electronic and acoustic instrumental stylings, his arrangements will always throw the listener off and challenge her in the best way possible.