The haunting synth tones of Ricardo Donoso were honed to perfection on his 2012 LP Assimilating the Shadow, with sparse and spacious songs that sounded like dance music made during a dream, filled with momentum and tension. Donoso continues that mode on the forthcoming As Iron Sharpens Iron, One Verse Sharpens the Other (to be released this month as two 45-rpm 12-inch EPs via Digitalis), but his world of sound is fuller and busier now.

On “The Sphinx,” the bubbling, heartbeat-like rhythm builds up quickly, accumulating synth squiggles and melodic accents as it hurtles forward. There are a few moments of beat-only pause, and even the densest stretches offer the listener room to enter. But where lots of Assimilating the Shadow was easy to blissfully zone out to, “The Sphinx” feels more nervous, more urgent—and maybe even more compelling.