Oops! I did it again!

I'm not gonna front, I'm keeping it straight pop—accessibility is, like, really important to me. I see music a lot like writing; if you write a book and only like a thousand people can understand it—that's a bad book. I'm always trying to get more people to understand what I'm doing and use that sort of like a marker of where I need to go.

Cex (also known as Rjyan Kidwell) reveals this statement to us via an answering machine recording just after the last beat falls on the second track, Eleven Million Dollars Worth of Bearer Bonds. His youthful voice betrays no insincerity, yet his earnestness hides a smirk. It is difficult to take such a statement too seriously these days, especially on a contemporary electronic release. Cex is serious, but he wants everyone to get in on the fun. There is definitely a "pop" sensibility at work here; Cex is determined to entertain his audience. In other words, Oops! I did it again! is not a "difficult" album. Cex knows about highbrow electronics and digital signal processing, but does not feel compelled to make that kind of a record. One look at the cover art, a mysteriously bloody scene juxtaposed with the not-quite-Britney title previews Cex's multi-faceted electronic ride.

A good portion of Cex's compositions share three elements: ambient synthesizers playing a simple chord progression; a serious hip-hop–infected bass line, and Cex's critical beats and percussive manipulations. Cex's beats are definitely unique, showing the influences of both more accessible rhythmic styles and the hyper-abstract work of Aphex Twin and Autechre. Never favoring either extreme, his beats stay tasteful, elements and effects coming in and out, rarely letting repetition feel repetitious, complex rhythms never over-powering themselves, and never drowning his work in effects. Usually Cex's beats are prominent in the mix; on a track like Eleven Million Dollars, brutal, manipulated percussion plays off distant, lightly effected synthesizers. However, on the next track, Destination: Sexy, the binary of beat and ambient synthesizer feels rather dull. Instead of building on a simple arrangement, letting it move in its space, the track is more content to simply repeat.

Cex's palette is not necessarily so limited, nor are his arrangements necessarily "minimal." First for Wounds brings in simple acoustic guitars, and they fit well in an otherwise purely electronic space. Starting with the guitar, Cex builds up the texture with beats and electronics, slowly blending the acoustic and electronic sonic spaces. Musically, the progressions and arpeggios are simple, but not basic, benefiting from a very good arrangement and mix. The addition of multiple Theremin-esque instruments later in the composition definitely makes First for Wounds a stand out track, exemplary of Cex's sensibility in the electronic realm, but also of his talent for keeping a hook in his listener. This emphasis on hooks over complex synthesizer patches and DSP washes may be a bit shocking to some listeners, but simple tones haven't been used this effectively in years. The mix is generally on the dry side, but great tracks are not made from effects.

When Cex allows his tracks to develop, his work gets most interesting. I don't think you do sin, Julia is one such composition. Opening with some manipulated voice samples floating in an undefined space, Cex brings in the beat at just the right moment, taking the track from DSP excursion to serious songwriting. His melodies are especially clear here: a simple synthesizer, dry as a bone, interacting with some of the best beats on the album. Here, the artist is the least content with repetition; the composition moves along, willing to evolve, briefly mangling some samples, taking a breath, changing, and then returning to...