Wabi-Sabi, the latest album from Texas duo Cross Record, is a gorgeous, haunted, contradictory thing. Minimal and ornate, weighted in seemingly incompatible ways, it nods to PJ Harvey one moment, Steve Reich the next, as it sits in a glorious no-man's land between Chelsea Wolfe's Apokalypsis and the Microphones' It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water. It's ominous twee; sludge chamber-pop; an ethereal western soundtrack. The seamless vocals of Emily Cross keep it all together, managing to be both barely noticeable and completely enveloping, holding you tight throughout the album's twists and turns. JOSHUA JAMES AMBERSON