Andy Human and Sam Lefebvre began writing and recording Desire Choir in 2021. They biked to a West Oakland rehearsal space and tracked drums and bass to an old tape machine. It was an accretive process, initially disoriented from live performance. Influenced by a ""communist interpretation of collective music"" and the variable post-punk and dub combinations of the On-U Sound label, as they write in a pamphlet companion to the album, Non Plus Temps emerged as more singers and players sought affinity amid the pandemic-era social isolation and unrest.The result joins various instruments (sax and saz, synths and bells) and production techniques in a sound like the ""broken headlight sky"" mentioned in ""Endless Jetty Night,"" the nervy, Residents-like meditation on coastal subduction zones closing the A-side. Album opener ""Continuous Hinge,"" with vocalist Amber Sermeno, is a backbeat beaded with Stanley Martinez's electric viola, while ""Facts Sound Like Myths"" introduces pinballing dub paranoia. ""Reversible Mesh,"" they write, suggests a ""self-conscious Eno affinity surrendering to Chrome.""
