Noise Floor is a 9-track collection that encompasses a whole new sound for Jamaica Plain’s Skinny Bones (Jacob Rosati and Christopher Stoppiello) that was released earlier this month. The title refers to the minimum level of a system or device, the low frequencies you encounter when recording or capturing found sounds. This album, aptly titled, will serve as the underlying hum for Skinny Bones’ burgeoning career.

“Floor #1” serves as a brief introduction of looped field recordings that allows you to settle in before it segues into the record’s first single “Wanderlust”. Here the Nicolas Jaar-inspired vocal distortion that Rosati began to play with on last year’s Skinni Dip (listen: “A Moment or Two”) makes a comeback. On Noise Floor you’ll find nods to artists like The Books, Wilco, Mute Math, Gorillaz, Port Blue, and Emancipator amidst the duo’s folktronic roots.

Equally heady as it is emotional, Noise Floor manages to straddle the line between challenging our ears and maintaining melody. Despite the fact that Rosati’s lyrics revolve around the struggle to find contentment, loss, and faded memories – you find a peculiar comfort in his honesty.

Noise Floor swells and releases amongst the countless layers but is accented with a lightness found in the soft murmuring chords of “Sieve” and playful syncopation in “Leave”. Rattling bike chains in the interlude “Jamaica Plain” let you ride shotgun through duo’s neighborhood cycling through warped conversations ending on an open road with Rosati gently singing along to Molly Nilsson’s “8000 Days”.

There’s a unresolved tension that grounds the record and begs the question, where do we go from here? A couple of weeks ago the two received a call from their guy over at Brooklyn Phono saying that in 25 years in the business, he’d never had an artist make this surprise request for how the vinyl is cut. I got the inside scoop and have to say, the choice they made answers the aforementioned question. You just might have to place an order to find out for yourself.

Noise Floor feels urgent. It commands your full attention. I’m not going to disclose how many times I’ve spun it…but let it be noted that I can’t just listen to one track, when I push play I have to hear the entirety of it. Listen to Noise Floor below. It’s pay-what-you-want (for the digital download), which includes free, but you should throw them a few bones if you can.