Sample-based albums are nothing new, but the U.K.’s Keaver & Brause go above and beyond—off-kilter timing, record pops, loop stops, and sound clipping are littered throughout the surprisingly smooth future-hop of their debut album, The Middle Way. Songs like the piano- and flute-riddled “Bounce” and the harp and bass-synth number “Laastic” show that Keaver & Brause have the chops to compete with Flying Lotus, but the duo also knows how to grind it up—“Csnr” and “Fision” pay homage to Autechre, while “Happy Happy” travels deeper down the rabbit hole into the spooky psychedelia made famous by Boards of Canada. Although The Middle Way falls short of being an epic piece of next-wave instrumental hip-hop, it’s nonetheless full of wonderful ideas.