Reverse diagnosis. It's a popular method, no acting involved. Reviewers look at the type music a particular assignment inspired them to roll the most. The idea is basic but telling. Whatever our spontaneous selection, it speaks directly to that component's particular strength/s. After the fact, we just parse what our review's playlist tunes had most in common. Lieutenant's particular virtues led me to a lot of complex big fare often with full orchestral backing. Around its moody then heroic solo vocals, "Not of love only" from Alireza Ghorbani's Sing with me album embeds massed strings, solo cello, piano, sparse harmony vocals and big dynamic swells. Rather than green-screen effect for sonic wallpaper, the orchestra must show real scale and layered intricacy despite being accompaniment.

"Gold Dust Bacchanalia" from Mychael Danna's Kamasutra soundtrack builds up a rollicking rhythm carpet with cyclopean bass beats—if a system has sufficient power down to 25Hz—before a slinky Indian violin changes the mood.

Hiba Tawaji's glossily Latin-esque "La Chou Ta Ehtam" includes orchestra again, lovely female chorus and vocal acrobatics approaching acapella in the bridge.

Juan Carmona's "Soniquetazo" from his Sinfonia flamenca album…

….plays percussive perspicacity between fierce bulería guitar rhythms and jagged orchestral responses interspersed with jaleos, palmas and some incendiary female vocals at the end.

"Brunosaure" from the Bratsch classic Rien dans les poches headlines guest Angelo Debarre on scorching Jazz Manouche guitar embedded in glorious ensemble tonalities.

Doing analytical bean counting for this short cross section of tunes, what did they have in common? At its most basic, they were mostly big not intimate, complex not simple. Clearly Lieutenant was uncommonly good at sorting out complexity, be it dense ensembles or fiery rhythms. Rather than avoid such fare and its ship-wreck risks, Lieutenant set deliberate sail through turbulent seas toward the 'isles of chaos' beyond them. To better understand the heightened resolution at work, I return us to the origin story linked earlier: "Combining non-dipole bass with dipole mids and tweeters is unusual. That combination's most famous proponent is probably Carl Marchisotto first with Dahlquist, later Acarian Systems Alón and presently Nola by Accent Speaker Technology. As the Nola website reminds us, dipoles eliminate four common problems: enclosure panel resonances; air column resonances from enclosure-trapped air setting up standing waves; time-delayed resonances of sound being re-transmitted through the driver cones; and driver resonances caused by trapped-air stiffness."