Heterotic is husband-and-wife production team Lara Rix-Martin and Mike Paradinas, the latter the boss and founder of Planet Mu, and a celebrated producer in his own right as u-Ziq. Their debut release is a composite of four striking instrumental tracks and four unique collaborations with Gravenhurst, the musical pen-name of Nick Talbot who is known for his dark, folk-tinged material for Warp Records. They were brought together by a mutual friend who sensed potential in the pairing. For both Talbot and Paradinas, the project is something of a departure. Love & Devotion displays an affinity for hazy, dreamy, '80s-influenced electronic pop shot through with the dynamics and space of modern electronic dance music. The lyrics describe a world profoundly haunted by its past; while allusions to a key event are cloaked in ambiguity, their echoes in the present are described in visceral and magical detail. Love & Devotion's tightly coiled melodies cloaked in an insomniac haze, subtle harmonic shifts and strong vocal counter-melodies conveying sweeping sketches of a troubled, neon world.
