Last time we checked Xploding Plastix their music was a crossbreed of nujazz/downtempo and electronic music. That I guess was their excellent 2001 album “Amateur Girlfriends Go Proskirt Agents“. After 7 years, a trip to a major label, collaborating with the likes of Kronos Quartet, composing for films and tv; the Norwegians are back with an IDM album on Beatservice. “Treated Timber resists Rot” is highly contrasting their sample-laden easy listening nujazz style we remember from their debut. This is a demanding and emotional album with mangled beats and dystopic melodies. It’s labeled IDM for lack of a better term and fear not it doesn’t share that terms connotations. A mature album that requests more than a few listens, the experimentations that fuse strings with electronics have paid off yet it needs a bit more of something that we can’t pinpoint to be named a masterpiece.