Neurotelepathy

Much like his Afrofuturist duo Drexciya with the late James Stinson, Gerald Donald’s Dopplereffekt project is drawn to big themes. Working alongside fellow Detroiter Michaela To-Nhan Bertel, he’s channeled topics like fascism, eugenics, and particle physics into dystopian electro. On their first LP since 2017’s *Cellular Automata*, Dopplereffekt sound even more dour than usual on the austere opener “Epigenetic Modulation.” But there’s a newfound sensitivity in songs like the swirling “Visual Cortex” and the wistful “Neuroplasticity,” and Dopplereffekt’s music has rarely sounded more emotional than on the sweeping “Optogenetics,” whose pinging arpeggios hold their own against the Berlin school’s 1970s *kosmische* greats. A concept album about wordless communication, *Neurotelepathy* imparts an unambiguous message of wonder.

On their first album in five years, Drexciya’s Gerald Donald and his long-time collaborator To-Nhan allow their habitually chilly electro to thaw a little, unexpectedly making way for a glimmer of human emotion.