As the name suggests, much of Vapor City, the second album from EDM whiz Travis Stewart’s Machinedrum project, is bathed in aural fog. But where 2011’s Room(s) messed with hyper, drum-machined-driven Chicago footwork, here the rhythms veer toward rolling drum and bass breaks, and the mood is a lot more relaxed. Drums underpin samples that loop and build and vary with purpose — see “Baby It’s U,” which Stewart distorts and smears into ever-more-lovelorn shapes. He makes them sound like songs, not just tracks — all the better to go with his own sung “U Still Lie,” a slushy goth/New Wave ballad for the ages.
