DubConscious, elder statesmen of the festival circuit and deans of the Athens electronica scene, are back in the studio. With a vengeance. Though officially an EP, at eight tracks These Days feels closer to a full album. And while DubConscious has already announced the band will be dropping a 14-track long-player in the fall, it’s clear from the myriad ideas bursting out of the seams of this preview octet that these guys were itching to get their new material laid down.

The enticingly chill opener “Ecclesiastes” is a classic dub jam that beckons the listener into DubConscious' world by way of friendly, ambling bass and bright, colorful sunspots of synth before a bubbly, staccato guitar fans out into exploratory flights of fancy. “Home 1” is a muscular, psychedelic organ workout with a dank, moonlit glow. Haunting, group-wailed vocals cry out from the depths of some murky, misty, miles-deep cavern and comingle with a downtempo dance groove that will make you want to twist slowly into the floor like a corkscrew, and then stay there all night. Equally exciting is the album’s closer “2’r,” in which DubConscious taps out a funky, slick beat in the squelchy language of analog synthesizers, before employing a pugnacious, space-eating trombone solo that blasts the listener out the door with a hearty slap on the back and a note pinned to his shirt: We’re Just Gettin’ Started.