James Allen’s debut recording-an EP by name but a tidy 38 minutes long-is a surprising first release for DJ Spooky’s Synchronic label. Devoid of the conceptual grandiosity of Spooky’s writings and the murky mestizaje of his recordings, Colorform’s music is a warm and enveloping swirl of house beats, orchestral samples and sci-fi sound design edited into a drifting (but hardly shapeless) stream-of-consciousness flow. The most immediate reference might be Jimpster’s 1999 album Messages from the Hub, in which jazz expressionism pooled with ambient impressionism in an amniotic haze. Deceptively smooth, Colorform’s music slips quietly by on first listens, but returns to you like fragments from a forgotten dream. A promising debut for artist and label alike.