The American behind Scientific American's laptop is Andrew Rohrmann, and Strong for the Future is his Mush debut full-length. He's also known as a member of Hush Harbor, for his work with Modest Mouse and 764-HERO, for some mixtapes and even some TV ad backdrops. His work on Strong is of the instrumental electronic brand, mostly click-heavy and mathematical, jumping from channel to channel.
Rohrmann does break off into wordless hip-hop. On "Between Urban Movements" he loops vocal pieces and synths, and it comes off a bit like a Four Tet outtake. As guest John Atkins (of 764-HERO) sings on "Drift in Place," "When you're drifting you just take up space," Rohrmann's work occasionally does just that, nearing production pinnacles in space-occupying jaunts that may sound great but are a little empty otherwise.
"The Seas are the Skies" picks up said spacious slack, though, and tightens it up with churning, ghostly whispers over minimalist psychedelia, one of Rohrmann's methods that easily usher him onto the shelf of notable hybrid-beat explorers.
