Dave Segal wrote a very favorable feature about Mythology of the Metropolis in this week’s issue of The Stranger!

Former Seattle denizen Deceptikon (aka Zack Wright) now dwells in San Francisco, but he remains a well-liked figure in the Emerald City and often returns here to ply his finely crafted cuts. His new album, Mythology of the Metropolis (Daly City Records; www.dalycityrecords.com), is now available on the major digital retail sites and is selling like proverbial hot bytes.

Mythology of the Metropolis consists of 14 examples of crisp, vibrant, post-Dilla instrumental hiphop, with flashes of pretty IDM melodies and late-’00s bass wobble. Deceptikon keeps the head-nod factor high while wrenching out some interesting, exotic melodies. “Echolocation” genuflects to the Far East with its fluttering, quasi-Zen garden motif (à la Philip Glass in his Mishima soundtrack) set amid splatting, stalwart funk beats. “Indo Loops” also is riveting, with its distorted (presumably Indian) chant warbling over a sinuous synth drone, staunch Madlib-elous clapper beats, and furious, pitch-shifted tabla slaps. “The Fall of Humanity” majestically glides like 1977 Kraftwerk, while “Dissolving in Acid” lives up to its title, running crinkly Roland 303 squiggles through a dense thicket of kick-drum thump and toxic squalls of low-end pressure. “Broken Synthesizers” growls and bristles like a peak-time Cannibal Ox/El-P joint.

Along with similar works like Flying Lotus’s Los Angeles, Mux Mool’s Skulltaste, Nosaj Thing’s Drift, and Free the Robots’ Ctrl Alt Delete, Mythology of the Metropolis is mapping out a fertile field where IDM and dubstep’s textural playfulness and extremity tampers with hiphop’s rhythmic parameters, but without causing fissures in its essential funkiness. Exciting times, indeed.

Thanks Dave!