I like to think Emmalee Crane and I would get along well. I think this because of her music. It’s unassuming, unpretentious, yet it exists in a completely different realm of thought. It’s down to earth, yet it’s also quite out there. You get that with minimalist music, but unlike her earlier work in Crux, this one has louder peaks. On Formantine, Crane’s latest release, she adds more samples, picking up bits and pieces of spoken word. It’s part eerie and part relaxing, a …

Crux by Emmalee Crane is one of those ethereal atmospheric albums that you’d think would have a welcome home alongside masters like Windy & Carl on Kranky Records, but they find themselves on a small but budding San Francisco label The Streetlight Farm. Crux matches the power of Kranky’s drone-worthy artists, from the aforementioned to the excellence of Greg Davis and Gregg Kowalsky. And in that manner alone, Crux is an absolute success.