Oval: “Motif” (Szenariodisk, 1999 Thrill Jockey)

Markus Popp’s Szenariodisk felt like pop music after the subtle ambient manipulations of his dok collaboration with Christophe Charles. “Motif” is almost a head-bobbing jam by those standards, though Popp would go further into the deep end of abstraction with two more albums before reinventing himself in his current, bright incarnation.