When seasoned Australian musicians Conrad Standish and Sam Karmel teamed up as CS + Kreme, the result felt natural and revelatory. Anchoring Standish’s bass guitar in heavy dub processing, sweeping post-punk, and chamber music soundscapes, the duo crafts what they describe as slow and meditative “horizontal-music,” which is just as inquisitive as it is consoling. With its meditative and seducing qualities, CS + Kreme’s 2020 album Snoopy functioned for many as a comforting weighted blanket during the early pandemic moment. Follow-up album Orange (2022) takes their signature sound to the next level with unmistakably original, skittering drum programming, startlingly fresh instrumental interjections, creepily invocatory voices, and dubwise treatments.