Not Not Fun is an imprint that doesn’t necessarily concern itself with a single genre of music. Instead, the Los Angeles based imprint seeks to issue any music even tangentially related to psychedelia. And at this late date in music history, that could mean just about anything. Still, the kind of tripped out sounds one locates on NNF releases possesses a modicum of connectivity. It’s an sleepy eyed, kind of mess, but one, apparently, with a point. Pocahaunted doesn’t sound like Sun Araw. And Sun Araw doesn’t sound like High Wolf. But that’s the point.

In his review of Ascension, the latest release High Wolf has gifted the world with, Tiny Mix Tapes’ writer Jordan Redmond gets into a cultural criticism that figures the creative class needs to be capacious of wrapping its ideas in the ideas of other artists – a sort of mind meld for musicians. Yes, that sounds like hippie tripe, but at the same time incorporating anything that an individual deems worthwhile into his/her own work results in an expansion of the source material. No one can argue that that’s a bad thing. And its probably not. But where is there a line delineating the rehash from creation?

Wherever the answer is, it’s not on Ascension, unfortunately.

High Wolf’s newest disc isn’t a bore or even flakey enough to warrant drastic criticism. The nature of droned on, minimal music, though is a problematic one with boundaries fixed and limiting. There endless ways to voice this kind of music, lending it an air of originality. But for the most part, it’d be difficult to decipher one disc from the next. Ambience abounds, but whose ambience it is might easily be lost on a blind listener.

But maybe that’s not the point to the music.

Instead, earning the right to send out signals in album form to folks one’s never met seems to be the main purpose to all of this electronic stuff. It might ape a kraut aesthetic at times – or even an Indian on as is so pervasive on Ascension. With “Solar System Is My God” coming off as a cultural appropriation, lifted for manipulation, Redmond’s positing is beared out. High Wolf assimilates its tastes to its enjoyments and renders it all in simple composerly terms not out of step with a dirth of contempo electronic musics.

Does any of this matter if the world’s made a little smaller? Nope. So go get an earful.