For his follow-up to 2013 debut Lesser Evil, Doldrums (aka Montreal musician Airick Woodhead) will make a humongous leap from mid-sized Montreal label Arbutus Records to indie titan Sub Pop. Judging from lead single and opening track “Hotfoot,” The Air Conditioned Nightmare — titled for a 1945 essay collection by Henry Miller — will mark a corresponding leap in fidelity. What “Hotfoot” does not indicate is a drop in intensity. The song hits hard, its skewed metropolitan pulse giving way to aggro percussive bass bursts that remind me of LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge.” There are shades of latter-day Radiohead and/or solo Thom Yorke in there too, though Woodhead’s vocals are more like queasy ghosts. Hear “Hotfoot” below.

The Air Conditioned Nightmare tracklist:
01 “Hotfoot”
02 “Blow Away”
03 “Funeral For Lightning”
04 “We Awake”
05 “Video Hostage”
06 “Loops”
07 “iDeath”
08 “My Friend Simjen”
09 “Industry City”
10 “Closer 2 U”

The Air Conditioned Nightmare is out 4/6 in Europe and 4/7 in the US via Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.