Highlight

Poland is home to a celebrated jazz tradition, one that’s provided both inspiration and raw material for the Polish duo Skalpel. In their early years, they collaged their way through decades’ worth of dusty vinyl, arranging stray scraps of horns, drums, and stand-up bass into moody downtempo in the vein of their labelmates The Cinematic Orchestra. On *Highlight*, their first album in six years, it’s less clear which parts are sampled and which are simulacra: The crackle of worn wax is gone, but the brushed snares and plucked double basses still hark back to a bygone era of analog studios and dimly lit clubs. The duo’s drum programming is as breathtaking as ever—just check the liquid flow of the drum-’n’-bass-flavored “Quicksilver”—but it’s their synth work that makes *Highlight* such a moody triumph. On the opening “Blow,” menacing electronic flourishes fuse the growl of trombones with the sculpted buzz of bass music; on “Cold Air,” harp and mallet sounds evoke the rapture of spiritual jazz and classical minimalism, while the layered pads and looped voices of “Escape” provide an airy counterpoint to the staccato drums. The latter is one of the headiest cuts on an album full of head-nodding delights—not so much a jazz throwback as an homage to the golden age of trip-hop.