For most of its decade-long existence, Friendly Psychics Music has hidden a secret in Chris Jones, the label's co-founder, bass player, and occasional lyricist and artist. But that changed with the inaugural releases from A Surplus of 1, Jones' first-ever solo project. The 2010 double-punch EPs Pyros and Unpunished Crimes and Compelling Regrets announced a bracing new voice on the home-recording scene.

A longtime punk and rock bassist, Jones switched gears by experimenting with the technology first introduced on Unified Alarm System's album This is Only a Test. Employing a mix of sequencers, loops, circuit-bent electronics and more, he captured the best of dark '80s pop and '90s electronica with trippy, ambient numbers that balanced structure and air, darkness and light.

The third So1 EP, The Promise of Sad Ownership, melds the best elements of the first two So1 releases into a concise and pointed effort. For the first time, Jones puts forth and entire collective work that focuses on one centralized theme. Not so much a concept album; more like scattered thoughts from the same recurring dream. Employing different recording techniques yield stark differences in each track as well; "Bucyrus pt's 1 - 4" were originally recorded as one 19 minute track. "Engineering a Peaceful Failure" gives a knowing nod to 70s prog rock, while "Waving Back" hints at the Syd Barrett - era Pink Floyd.

Imagine touring a Japanese factory on acid, but instead of a human tour guide you're being shuttled through the machinery itself. Grand and metallic, simple and warm, broken and perfect. Call it retro-futurism, techno fetishism, or post-Industrial tomfoolery. Just know that it's coming for you. And it's hungry.