Michael Tucker, a Vancouver-based video game designer and producer, makes music as Blood Diamonds. He dreamily approaches dance-centered party music, making lush, somewhat cerebral tracks that manage to groove and bounce through their complex layers. Tucker exercises his ears’ compositional ability in “Dreams,” released in anticipation of an upcoming EP from his label The Pop Manifesto. “Dreams” combines many of the things that Blood Diamonds does well — it is complex and catchy, orchestrally huge but intimate as well. A far-off marimba operates between the melody and percussion, but those divisions aren’t exactly rigid. Tucker uses melody elements like a funk musician, as the higher register does double duty by playing percussive hits and orchestral swooshes. However, his sense of percussion is less James Brown and more Young Magic or Animal Collective. Instead of bearing down, Tucker shakes and stutters — the beat of the track sputters like an old car before kicking into high gear with a hyperactive hi-hat. Tucker’s R&B sensibilities really enable the way that he fuses so many elements, and he seems to acknowledge this influence in his sample choice. In “Heart” he uses a vocal sample of The Temptations, and the siren-like wail that pops up in the middle of the track echoes fellow Canadian The Weeknd’s “Glass Table Girls.” Overall, Blood Diamonds meshes together a lot of disparate elements very well — the end-product is slick and very listenable without sounding recycled.