Greg Fenton reviews Jeff Mills – The Eyewitness – Axis Records
Lost in worlds. Found in sound. We are surrounded incessantly by so much music that it’s perfectly reasonable to lose your grounding. To forget where you are. Maybe even to be certain of what remains important within the art of listening. In evaluating.
Writing about this past number of albums by Jeff Mills has centred that process providing a certain stability, despite the heady fusion of modular impulses generated by the conversational free flow of information the music created always offers something deeper to tune into, to connect with than seems to be located across an increasingly blurred landscape. Language is after all crucial in this context and Jeff Mills’s music, it has to be said, speaks volumes physically and emotionally during these albums.
It is by its nature a rich tapestry of sounds and ideas. Try the weird, replenishing composition Menticide which occupies the second track with its unnerving clash of notes that at the same time feels uplifting, providing a sense of unexpected reassuence in the experience. In much the same way the cosmic reflections of Mass Hypnosis do. While the contrasting voices and grainy intensities seek out fresh ground on the aptly titled In A Tramatized World_The Human Toll Mix.
(Image by Jacob Khrist)
Never short of a brilliant title, Wonderous Butterfly sounds like a classical piece warped through a prism of temptation resulting in a compelling, futuristic rendition of traditional points east to west. Again the album plays like an intriguing series of musical events that touch upon accepted notions of techno as they do the illuminous sensory overload of jazz and beyond. Try another excellent statement of intent in the shape-shifting, strange odyssey of, Sacred Iridescent Mirror (The Pledge) as organs whir and keys sparkle with an air of dangerous mystery ready to unfold.
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Release: July 5
Buy Jeff Mills – The Eyewitness (double vinyl)
Jeff Mills Linktree
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