The eccentric New York couple Delia Gonzalez Gavin Russom debuted in early 2004 with a 12" on DFA. Its 14-minute A-side had nothing to do with dance music, unlike most of the label's output, and came closer to resembling (some might say mimicking) ambient electronic mavericks like Tangerine Dream and Manuel Göttsching. It threw a lot of the label's freaks for a loop, but on the back side of the 12" was a DFA remix of another track, which placed an infectious drum pattern beneath layers of percolating keyboards that weren't too distant from the ones heard on the A-side. The duo then proceeded to work on The Days of Mars during an extended period, and it wasn't finished before they were able to take part in a slinky (and very lengthy) indie-disco rumpus room single under the name Black Leotard Front. The Days of Mars contains four tracks that range in length between 11 and 14 minutes. Made mostly with analog keyboards constructed by Russom, it's quite different -- and a welcomed reprieve -- from the glut of albums produced on laptops. Naturally, there's a concept (the title comes from a book written by Winifred Bryher), but the music is open-ended and evocative enough that you can attach your own ideas and images to it (whether it's alternate themes for Risky Business' Guido the Killer Pimp, zipping down a sleek freeway, or whatever else comes to mind). While it could be argued that it's too much of a throwback to its inspirations, it could also be argued that the inspirations often sounded completely out of time. It'll definitely evoke memories for those who traced the progression of electronic music throughout the '70s. There are no beats, no traces of any percussion. Laboriously layered rhythmic textures swarm around, discretely surface, and then vanish, undulating, burbling, fluctuating, fibrillating -- all that stuff. Though any given track can seem unchanging at the outset, you might feel your mood slowly shift from at-ease to unease (or the other way around). Whether or not this moves you (some Rapture fans are likely to instantly declare it a bore-athon), it's clear that the duo accomplished exactly what they set out to do. And yes, that's them on the cover, possibly waiting for the bus to take them to the local grocer. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi