Conor Mackey plays guitar in postrock group Monobody, which is how you know he has unpredictable energy—any musician tasked with creating rogue jazz flourishes and postmetal freakouts while Nnamdi Ogbonnaya plays his high-wire drums is definitely operating on another level. Mackey studied music theory and composition at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, and since graduating in 2013 he’s had a hand in several styles of music, including contemporary classical—in 2018, the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra named him one of three finalists in its first annual composer-in-residence competition. Even with all that in mind, though, I wasn’t prepared for the electronic music Mackey makes as Lynyn. He debuted his IDM-inspired persona last fall, when he produced all of the Nnamdï EP Are You Happy—an auspicious beginning, considering that up till then Ogbonnaya had made his outre art-pop entirely solo. Lynyn’s new debut album, Lexicon (Sooper), slaloms through stylistic switcheroos, exuding a crazed restlessness without dissolving into entropy. On “Amund Vise,” Mackey sprinkles distant-sounding vocal samples atop a battery of busy percussion that adds texture and sparkle to a placid synth melody. By constantly toying with all those elements throughout the track, he builds a landscape that seems to stretch to infinity.
Lynyn The Armed headline. Fri 7/15, 11 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, sold out, 18+
