It's been a busy decade and a half for Seattle producer/musician Jeff Mcllwain. Under his Lusine moniker (sometimes called L'usine or Lusine ICL), he's churned out several albums, a steady stream of EPs, and more recently has been scoring films. Somewhat of a mad scientist with pop songs, Lusine has always implemented vast experimental ideas with beats and synth. On his eight album, 
The Waiting Room, he expands on his creative mind with female voices scattered throughout the listen and an overall much grander feeling production wise.
The five songs with vocals make this an intriguing step in Lusine's progression, but it is also a seemingly natural one. It represents a dichotomy between the instrumental tracks here that is peculiar but also fascinating. The guest vocalists all contribute in entirely different ways; meanwhile the music is also shuffling in endless directions. On “Without A Plan,” Janelle Kienow's pipes are calm and soothing, whereas Catilin Sherman's vocals on “Another Tomorrow” don't even sound human.
The instrumental songs veer more towards what we're used to with Lusine, focusing more on looping, house thumping, rugged beats, and club ready anthems; “Panoramic” and “February” both are on board with this sort of sound. “Lucky” delves into glitchy house music, and perhaps the oddest yet most pop-spirited offering is a cover of Electronic's “Get The Message,” which takes help from Sarah Mcillwain.
An accomplished meshing of ambient, techno, experimental electronica, and even radio friendly pop rock, The Waiting Room finds Lusine continuing to impress in the area of electronic music. While this time he sides more with the pop element, he is certainly unafraid of experimenting. This is the most accessible album he's done yet and an all-out masterpiece in a genre that's still really only credits The Postal Service as a band worthy of everyone's attention; The Waiting Room really should be this decade’s Give Up.