“If I tried to listen to an album with 10 dance songs, I’d be pretty bored by the third track,” says Leo Thomson, one of the multi-instrumentalists behind Canyons. (Fellow Perth native/Hole In the Sky co-founder Ryan Grieve is the other.) “That’s why we don’t want to be pigeonholed as a ‘dance/electronic act’ or ‘DJs/producers’—because we’re two musicians exploring a creative energy that could end up just about anywhere.”

That’s certainly the case on the Australian duo’s long-awaited album, "Keep Your Dreams". True to its title, it unfolds like a feverish series of frantic chords, loose synth lines and macerated drum machines ("The Bridge"); sun-bleached sitars, hypnotic hooks and sandblasted saxophones ("And We Dance"); and increasingly blurry blends of what’s live and programmed, a balance that was first struck on last year’s "My Rescue" single alongside POND frontman Nick Albrook. He wasn’t the only guest, either. Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker also floats through the psych-pop ether of "Tonight", rounding out a guest list that includes members of Nite Jewel (Ramona Gonzalez), the Embassy (Fredrik Liston) and the classic British rock band Sniff ’n’ the Tears (Paul Roberts).

Don’t get the wrong idea, though. "Keep Your Dreams" is Canyons’ directorial debut, from the broad, abstract brush strokes of "Circadia" to the deftly-layered beat-less passages of "Land In Between". Like “Tonight” and the locked glitter ball grooves of "When I See You Again", it goes against the dance-centric grain of the group’s first couple releases (2008’s The Lovemore EP, a DFA-endorsed 12-inch called Fire Eyes), although there’s certainly some floor-fillers on here as well (the laser-cut house loops of "See Blind Through", the peak-hour breaks of "Blue Snakes").