From its inception, Stuart Bogie’s Superhuman Happiness project has served as more of a sprawling collective of Brooklyn, N.Y.’s top session players than a typical band. But, over the years, as personnel have come and gone, Bogie—who has shared the stage and recorded with the likes of Arcade Fire, David Byrne, Iron & Wine, TV On The Radio, Antibalas and Phish—slimmed down the pack and solidified the membership to include founding member Eric Biondo along with newly added vocalist Andrea Diaz and guitarist Sam Levin. For their latest record, Escape Velocity, Bogie also tapped into his vast network of contributors and invited saxophonist Colin Stetson, Arcade Fire violinist Sarah Neufeld and drummer Joe Russo to lend a hand. A sophisticated dance party from the start, Escape Velocity evokes Bogie and his cohorts’ erudite musical talents with an added lyrical depth, emerging as the group’s most actualized musical statement to date. Merging broad influences from Afrobeat to free jazz to ‘70s prog-rock, the songs explore lyrical notions like how storytelling and communication impact our interpretation of our own memories (“VHS,” “Super 8”), or the addictiveness of social media (“Date & Time”). While previous Superhuman Happiness albums have attempted to bridge the sounds of major and minor, here, Bogie has shown that his music can be both animated and contemplative.