Remember the excitement surrounding Purity Ring when their first few tracks hit the internet and before their debut album flopped? Corin Roddick’s 808-driven beats seemed to rise out of the malaise of so-called chillwave and it appeared that the duo was going to ascend to experimental pop royalty. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons I won’t get into here, their sound didn’t carry to a long play format and Shrines was monotonous and unengaged . Enter Boston producer Mood Indigo, presumedly named after the eponymous Duke Ellington cut. Back in June, he uploaded a choppy, off-kilter instrumental jam called “Dive” that immediately evoked Gold Panda’s more beat-ortiented work. The song simmered on Bandcamp for a while, largely ignored (by us at least) despite its brilliance. Three months later, Mood Indigo uploaded the People EP. The rest will be history.

Infusing his own vocals into the equation, the four track EP picks up where Purity Ring left off. Dark, hip hop-derived pop songs that don’t boom or bap (despite the omnipresent 808’s) as much as they envelop the listener. Mood Indigo is no Purity Ring knock off though. The four songs on People show more breadth and ingenuity, especially in the song writing, than all of Shrines. There is virtually no information about Mood Indigo floating around the internet so the music stands on its own without any image-related shenanigans. The EP is a little pricy at $7, but give it a test ride below and see what you think. You can grab “Dive” for free at Mood Indigo’s Bandcamp.