One of the real triumphs to Ry X’ universally lauded Berlin resides in the reality that it speaks instinctively to the Homo sapiens’ insatiable thirst for basic sound – there is no pretence nor complexity to it, with the song’s resonant emotive timbre therefore allowed to gleam cleanly through, much like the Berliner Fernsehturm in an unlikely German sun. And as Ry, real name Ry Cuming, now combines with contemporary R&B guru Steve Nalepa plus British DJ Adam Freeland to form multinational powerhouse The Acid, the Antipodean crooner applies those same bristly tonalities to the aptly titled Basic Instinct.\r \r Cuming’s intimately layered vocals once more recall those of a certain Devendra Banhart circa Niño Rojo, with those restive, ligneous acoustics then renowned of the freak-folkster slowly abating to unveil an expressive, progressive and altogether more synthetic aural tapestry that itself seems rather more reminiscent of Thom Yorke’s The Eraser. It’s in the skittish beats; the sketchy strums and terse vocal cuts; the caustic glitch that scars the song’s perfectly acerbic middle eight. “Coming up for air/ Coming up for air, air” Cuming resumes, his vocal irreproachable as per always, although the outcome proves extraordinarily breathtaking