Sean Moore, Lid Emba’s auteur, is based in Atlanta, GA, where he also plays with Tenth to the Moon, while Ryan Huber, Bobcrane’s creator, lives in Bloomington, IN. Sparked by a common association with Stickfigure Records and hearing tracks from their prior releases on MySpace, Sean and Ryan began collaborating in early 2007. Sustained by constant e-mail dialogue and fueled by snail-mailing sound files back and forth, they managed to construct six tracks of psychotropic headphone food despite having different hardware-software setups and being separated by over 500 miles. Megaton mastered by James Plotkin, We Substitute Radiance coherently balances and blends Lid Emba’s unorthodox swirl of deranged metrics and texture with Bobcrane’s dronescape meets boom box aesthetic, resulting in a hook inflected collection of art damaged and benevolently demented musique electronique.

“Like spending 40 minutes inside an especially creepy toy shop where you never quite know what is going to happen next. Well produced and immaculately arranged. Whilst not always an easy listen, it never fails to be an interesting one.” – Terrascope

“So mind bendingly complicated that to try and analyze it at any great length is enough to cause a brain hemorrhage for even the most decorated of polymaths. A journey deep into a realm of broken rhythm, gentle lulls and biting, jagged industrial insanity.” – Subba-Cultcha

“Theater of the mind music that keeps you on your toes and is always changing, which is very important in these days of 30 second attention spans.” – Heathen Harvest

“Envelopes you in a bizzaro world aesthetic that manages to be dark and disturbing yet reassuring. The epic 9+ minutes closer, ‘Flying Undead Overhead,’ is a truly gorgeous opus that exemplifies everything We Substitute Radiance is about; masterfully expressing the most natural and pure emotions with the most synthetic palette possible.” – Ohmpark Atlanta Music Blog

“Rhythm is still very much the order of the day, with much of the album based on a series of complex and bewildering beats upon which a swirling kaleidoscope of electronica is constructed.” – Wonderful Wooden Reasons

“Wicked, textural, and disturbing.” – MastanMusic

“An ominously apocalyptic parade of pieces that may serve well as the winning side’s celebratory soundtrack once humanity falls and the machines take over once and for all.” – Stomp and Stammer

“Grotesque sonic landscapes of whacked-out electronics anchored by fat beats and trance rhythms, like a hallucinogenic mushroom cloud slowly dissolving in a dark dance club and bathing the dancers in radiation.” – the one true dead angel

“Sounds like a strange, art-damaged jam between Tangerine Dream, early 90’s Residents, and a dubbed-out electro-King Crimson. Heavy guitars, fractured beats, pulsing bass and massive amounts of knob-twiddling all collide for an amazing, psychedelic journey to a better place. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.” – Public Guilt

“Loud, not too fast beats, inspired by dub, but rockin’ not reggae-ing. On top of this spin a hot bed of electronics that either float along nicely to the rhythms or collide like floating masses of ice. Nice one indeed.” – Vital Weekly

“Elements of psyche, electro, prog, ambience lace this collaboration. All instrumental, very interesting and progressive quantum leaps into the realms of new music, pop, experimental. For fans of post rock, prog, downtempo, Fripp, Eno. Name it.” – KZSU Zookeeper Online

MP3 Sample: Flying Undead Overhead