With all of these dark shadows bearing down on us, one can only consume so much, which allows Incide the space it needs to stretch its textured tentacles until every last one of us is assimilated.
A vortex of sound capsules exploding into many disjointed shapes
There’s something captivating here, a vortex of sound capsules exploding into many disjointed shapes as Rhode Island based Emlyn Ellis Addison reveals a twenty-three track collection available on red vinyl, MiniDisc, and digital format. It’s a surreal (and unsurprising) assortment of densely layered, hauntology infused electronics, ambient and glitchy manifests. The sort of smorgasbord and ethereal dreamlike smattering that kicks off right at the start with “Hexis” and its “I love you, you love me…” message swirling around flickered beatwork with FSOL-like precision. The vocal elements overflow as noted on “I Want,” a cerebrally warped downtempo and sandblasted shoegaze beauty acting as a crunchy behemoth that could loop infinitely.
It’s as if these murky and downtrodden tracks breathe a life of their own; their organic nature, off-kilter grooves, and dystopian soundscapes (“ex sui”) are as intoxicating as they are translucent. Imagine Mr. Projectile’s Sinking album warped and deformed into a wispy and spooky version of itself where melodic moments mangle into nonlinear forms and distressed anthems like “protoGAN,” “making a mind,” “meta-egregore,” and “recurse” pierce right through our soul. And yet there are just as many calm yet disturbed sonic fissures as there are crumpled glitches (“if we can still feel” and “hypercathexis”) where the amount of detail and extraterrestrial soundscapes flash before us like unearthed BOC and Brainwaltzera exp-ambient archives. Also listen to “projectors-introjectors” and “blackbox” to get an idea of these mind-bending and dysfunctionally beautiful sound structures.
With all of these dark shadows bearing down on us, one can only consume so much, which allows Incide the space it needs to stretch its textured tentacles until every last one of us is assimilated. I’m all in. What a trip.
An absolute contender in our Top releases of 2023!
Incide is available on Redpan. [Bandcamp]
