Portal for his own finely tuned musical frequency, Laurie Osborne returns with the latest Appleblim set, Neolithic Neon, released through hot house Sneaker Social Club. Here Osborne delivers a collection of tracks fused with depth, weight and emotional intelligence, reflecting not simply the mechanics of club music but the deeper pulse of human creativity itself.
Tools to excavate memory, movement and shared emotional states
Portal for his own finely tuned musical frequency, Laurie Osborne returns with the latest Appleblim set, Neolithic Neon, released through hot house Sneaker Social Club. Here Osborne delivers a collection of tracks fused with depth, weight and emotional intelligence, reflecting not simply the mechanics of club music but the deeper pulse of human creativity itself. A strong sense throughout the album doesn’t let up where the tracks emerge from somewhere known and instinctive: a pre-verbal flow as archetypal as old, as though rhythm and bass are used as ancient tools to excavate memory, movement and shared emotional states.
The record carries an elemental quality; warm, dubwise, dance-ready and deeply physical, yet threaded with introspection. Bass and bottom-end pressure dominate, but never at the expense of atmosphere or subtlety. Instead, Osborne balances impact with restraint, allowing grooves to breathe and mutate naturally. Stylistically, the album traverses the outer edges of dubstep, breaks and classic sound-system culture while remaining refreshingly untethered to revivalism. “Sarsens Embrace” erupts through a breaktastic climax and punishing drop sequence that lands with devastating force, while “Moodrift” floats through vast dub chambers, its reverberating synth stabs lifting the mind into near dissociative space. “Plasma Stomp” thrives on a swirling bassline and stuttering electro-funk propulsion that feels simultaneously mechanical and alive, while “Thunderstorm” channels distinct 1992 Dalston Lane energies through junglist pressure, pirate-radio spirit and warehouse heat.
What makes Neolithic Neon particularly compelling is the way it frames bass music as something profoundly communal and transformational rather than purely functional. Osborne seems interested in the psychological and even spiritual dimensions of rhythm; the notion that music first exists as an unspoken current moving beneath collective consciousness before eventually materializing as sound, dance and shared cultural memory. That idea courses through every track here. Even in its hardest moments the album remains deeply human, full of warmth, intuition and emotional tactility. Rather than simply revisiting established forms, Neolithic Neon reshapes them into something reflective, futuristic and quietly transcendent, capturing the sensation of bodies, memories and frequencies folding together inside a constantly evolving continuum of sound.
Neolithic Neon is available on Sneaker Social Club. [Bandcamp]
