Paracosm is Ernest Greene's second full-length album as Washed Out and he's back together with producer Ben Allen. At first glance it may feel a little bit like business as usual for Greene, one of the first break-through acts from the chill-wave scene and along with Toro y Moi, one of its most successful alumnus.

Unlike Toro y Moi, Greene is yet to stray significantly from the genre that broke him, and Paracosm isn't set to change that. Everything contained within this album is wrapped up in the same dreamy ice cream sundae feel that Washed Out are known for. But that isn't to say this is a simple sequel to debut Within and Without, which itself felt like an extended and widescreen version of Life of Leisure (albeit with all new material). For every moment that feels familiar (the opening verse of 'All I Know' ploughs recognisable territory) there are moments that mark an expansion of Greene's sound.

The Washed Out approach has deliberately been changed up on Paracosm, embracing a range of instruments beyond his standard synth and computer combo. More than 50 different instruments feature on the album including a wide range of vintage keyboards, such as the Mellotron, which was featured on the Beatles' 'Strawberry Fields' and was constructed using pre-recorded sounds, with individual notes recorded for each key in the chromatic scale.

The result is an album that feels even dreamier, but grounded via a deeper sense of nostalgia that feels like the accumulation of dust in the groove of a record player and faded photography from your youth, like authentic versions of those hipster Instagram photos belched out into the world at a rate that dwarfs everything else the human race has ever created up until now. Of course, Paracosm isn't old or dusty, and so in some ways it is just the aural equivalent of those Instagram shots itself, only Washed Out feels modern and psychedelic at the same time.

In adding instruments to his second album Greene has added a crucial depth to his music, but it comes laced with complexity and a certain darkness. 'It All Feels Right' is trodden in grit and spectral patterns that create a spellbinding concoction, a little like Röyksopp remixing Tame Impala covering the Beta Band. 'Don't Give Up' reflects the inclusive DJ styles of the long-mourned Avalanches and, even closer still, Boards of Canada. Its analogue and manages to be boyant in it's willingness to place a bet on rusty production and elegant touches.

Where chill wave felt spent and empty Paracosm is richer. Faced with some subtle yet significant changes it is perhaps the future that is the most exciting element of Washed Out's new album.

Paracosm is out now on Weird World, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP or MP3 [affiliate links].

Here's a confession: I lost the promo of Peaking Lights' debut album.

Whilst other more established and better organised music blogs were falling in love with with this duo I was falling over myself to figure out exactly where their album had gone.

I found it in the end though, dubby and sunny and seemingly increasingly lost in the moments it had experience in my absence - full of heady dreamy days and sunny hedonism.

The youth of today have seemingly become lost in a sun trap of day dreams and... Well, dreams. Listen to any of the bands you are supposed to give a shit about these days - Beach House, Washed Out, Kindness - and they all feel trapped inside their own lazy ambition.

What I really want. More than anything else. Is to keep on dreaming.

Peaking Lights' new album Lucifer feels like the removal of a veil. A pulling back of the curtain as you enter the tripped out dream world duo Indra Dunis and Aaron Coyes inhabit on this second experiment, their 45-minute sun dance.

And the dance kicks in proper on the intoxicating 'Beautiful Son', an epic crescendo of sunny keys, loving bass and assured guitars that forms a tribute to Dunis and Coyes' son, Mikko. It forms a high that won't let you come down. Not yet.

The intoxication kicks in proper at that point with 'Live Love', which quickly pioneers a groove-based dub adventure. 'Cosmic Tides' will leave you somewhere between enthused and relaxed, a slow move to climax that feels like little work was involved and yet it demands like an un-moveable force. There are traces of Peaking Lights' inspirations all over this record, in the fuzzy guitar lines of Stereolab and the subtle traces of paranoia peddled by Lee Perry.

This is an album that, even more than their last, sees the listener on a disconcerting journey to discovery. Repeated listens will take you further and deeper, like a ever descending version of Christopher Nolan's Inception. Just ensure you pack a map and a torch for you return trip from dreamworld.

Lucifer is out now on Weird World, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

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