Long the rhythm section of London band Red Snapper, Ali Friend and Rich Thair reconvene as Number on Binary, a tribute to the funk-punk of early-’80s groups like A Certain Ratio and 23 Skidoo. The two musicians' fondness for bass-driven grooves and crackling dub effects was audible in Red Snapper’s very earliest releases, in the mid-’90s, but they’ve never sounded quite as much like a full band—and a vintage one—as they do here. “Face Down in Ecstasy” boasts the disco strut and drainpipe vocal reverb of early Talking Heads; the gliding “Wedge,” led by Luisa Gerstein and Heloise Tunstall-Behren’s vocal harmonies, flashes back to the Tom Tom Club and ESG. But despite the prevalence of slap bass, synthetic brass stabs, and analog delay, it’s not an entirely throwback affair: Closing cut “Where You Sound” serves as a bridge between the album’s live-band sonics and Red Snapper’s electronic atmospheres, collapsing then and now into moody trip-hop.