Without much fanfare, Adrian Bertolone has been making some of the freshest, most intriguing electronic music on the scene. Also a talented visual artist, Bertolone made his bones with Cleveland, Ohio’s Jerk -- a gnashing, tempestuous noise rock group that centered on cheap and barely-functioning electronic gear systemically deconstructed by Bertolone and his bandmates. Rarely did a gig pass without some patched-together keyboard or synth ending up in the junk pile. But throughout Jerk’s decade-long existence, Adrian was concocting addictive, spastic, hypermelodic digital music under the calling card Ay/fast. Periodically, CDRs and files would leak out and make bigger name artists look foolish and boring. Long-running taste-making electronic label Schematic noticed this stealthy game of one-upmanship and began releasing Ay/fast’s music.

Now based in Buffalo, New York, Bertolone has been churning out killer beats and quirky melodies for years. Another person who noticed was Beans -- inimitable MC and former member of legendary underground hip-hop aggregate Anti-Pop Consortium. Anti-Pop is a key influence on Bertolone’s unique take on the near-future sci-fi pulse that runs through his music. Beans and Bertolone hooked up and the fruits of their labor, Haast, was one of several brilliant albums Beans released in 2017. Their collaboration makes perfect sense and brings us to Bertolone’s newest and most satisfying project to date.