There’s not a ton of information out there about the Philadelphia electronic producer Pontiac Streator—except the name, which could belong to a character in a Thomas Pynchon novel—and their similarly cryptic music. Falling somewhere in the no man’s land between ambient and techno, their deeply abstract productions are seemingly stitched together out of sighs, radio static, and the ceaseless motion of windshield wipers in a heavy downpour. Since 2018, Streator has emerged as a key member of a crew loosely arrayed around Huerco S. and his West Mineral Ltd. label. Streator and the similarly low-profile Ulla Straus have released collaboratively on the imprint, and Streator is also a part of virtualdemonlaxative, a kind of post-ambient/powerviolence brain trust including Straus, Berlin experimentalist exael, and Experiences Ltd. co-founder Special Guest DJ (aka Caveman LSD, DJ Paradise, and uon).

“Transier Unt” comes from Streator’s new album for the Los Angeles label Motion Ward, an allied hub for this nameless scene—call it outer-limits music for the extremely online—and it’s among the most emotionally direct music Streator has released yet. The textures here are familiar from previous work: muted pads, layers of hiss, a rhythm that shudders like a tape caught on the spool. Somewhere in the background, there’s a rattling sound like a stick being dragged slowly across a radiator, an elastic counterpoint to the filter-swept electronic drums in the foreground. It’s all very hazy and aquatic—its fluid repetitions would make a fitting soundtrack to YouTube aquarium footage—but what elevates “Transier Unt” above the merely atmospheric is a soft loop of wordless vocals that drifts slowly atop the current. It might not even be a real voice; it could just as easily be a digital creation. But whatever the truth of it, it feels not just human but superhuman: A doleful siren song leading even the most stoic listeners on a fathoms-deep dive into their feelings.