Artist: SubConsciousMind
Album: Intermezzo Extended
Record Label: Ektoplazm
Artist Website: subconsciousmind.ch
Download this Album for **free** from Ektoplazm Here!
Review:
And now . . . we are in August.
I paid rent yesterday. Bloody rent. Rent is like a ghost; always lingering about when you wish it wasn’t. You want to sleep. You want to go about your day. You want a simple answer to a straightforward question. The ghost is lurking and giving riddles. Bloody ghosts.
Anyway, I know you are not reading this to read about ghosts, although maybe you should be. I mean, really, they’re ghosts. Do you want to be haunted for the rest of your life by a riddle speaking apparition? Hell no. We need to calm those ghosts. In order to do that, sometimes we need to solve a riddle. Only once the riddle is solved do we understand the future of our own dilemma. Only once the riddle is solved can we sleep soundly through the night. Only once the riddle is solved can we move forward with what is in our hearts.
Moving forward with what is in our hearts.
This brings me to SubConsciousMind and his album Intermezzo Extended.
Moving forward with what is in our hearts, or as he puts it:
I don’t know what you want from me,
I don’t know what you think of me,
But I know there is my soul,
and it needs to be free
It needs to be free. Free from the ghost. Free from the haunted past. Free from the pain and trauma within. Free from what was holding it and keeping it in ghost form. It needs to be released. Freed.
My mind has been freed this summer. It all started back in May, then really took shape in June, then was double checked in July. Now it is August. Wow. August.
Bloody hell, back to the review.
So, this album I am writing about.
I am writing a lot. That means I really like the album. Even if I haven’t described a lick of it. lol. Have you caught on to my style yet? So . . .
This album is great. It’s filled with spritely melodies and much soul. The acid lines feel like real honest and purposeful melodies that have a sense of meaning behind them. You hear the acid crawling up and sliding down. The harmonies in the background use the right synth pads to give each song a proper feeling of completeness.
The songs carry a sense of purpose for the writer’s soul as well as for my own. The songs convey a sense of personal connection and storytelling, as well as a plane for you to weave your own connections through as well. It is definitely suited for what most people would consider morning music, however I am one of those people that would actually enjoy hearing this music in the middle of the night as well. I am not a banging 187bpm nutter. I like my songs to feel like songs. Unlike a lot of psytrance DJs who don’t participate in the psychedelic culture regularly, I do. And the heavy shit isn’t meant for peak hour. This music is. This isn’t tweaker music.
I have a pile of reviews I want to write. A pile. However this summer has been too epic for me to sit down and write anything at all. But then once track 4 -‘MyMusic’- hit my ears, I knew I had to write this review. This album needs to be heard. This is really good. And it’s free.
Let me state that again.
In big bold text.
THIS ALBUM IS FREE
That means you have zero reason to pass this album up. And please please please, don’t skip to track 4 simply because I mentioned it specifically. You want to work into it. And then you want to work past it. You need to work into those tears and the words of pain. You need to understand where it is coming from and why it is important to talk about. Then you need to get past it.
You need to slowly work into the many layers of acid lines. The layers of noise and cacophony. The Goa roots and the journey within. None of these things will happen if you skim the album. The old TIP energy. The Man With No Name melodies. Those damn Man With No Name melodies. They are so refreshing to hear. Especially when done as well as this.
I need more than well produced noises to get my mind off. According to legend, which I have no idea if this is true or not, it is not the size of the boat that matters, but what you do with it. If we accept this as a truth, and that size does not matter, then perhaps this would explain what bothers me about the amazing cock-off of a lot of the current music being released. It is all about size. All about speed and the many well produced noises and tricks. But none of that really matters. In fact, sometimes that makes it less ideal. Sometimes a woman wants someone who knows how to rock that knot properly, regardless of production values, and sometimes she needs a solid groove to feel groovy with.
That is what is going on here. The creeping. The crawling. The dance that happens outside of the song you hear. The space between notes which offers your mind a chance to fill in the gaps. The major key melodies. The sugar rush and the morning high. The love. The calming of the bloody ghosts.
SubConsciousMind might be the external embodiment of the internal ghosts and demons which we all face and come to terms with; if it is, it is rather cathartic.
This might also simply be a very well put together album for a summer morning or afternoon spent contemplating the various paths your future might walk upon and how to reach the one which is best suited for you.
Or, it might simply be a fantastic album of spirit and love. An album of hope through despair. An album that tries to answer the eternal question:
I don’t know what you want from me,
I don’t know what you think of me,
But I know there is my soul,
and it needs to be free
I hope that this SubConsciousMind gets to go free. But I also hope that it doesn’t stray too far, for I’d really like to hear more in the future.
xoxox
-A’damn