Shjva WAR1209

‘war1209’ finds Ukrainian artist shjva inducing trance states across an album equal parts tripped-out and dubby. Spanning brooding lysergic visions and locked-in dance floor hypnosis, expect drowsily impressionistic soundscapes and darkly cinematic gear across the 9-track duration. Total sonic immersion for the oddballs and the freaks.

Terraforming uncharted alien terrain, tracks like ‘X-Side’ and ‘Upper Limit’ descend into sprawling, widescreen exploration. Fathomless landscapes serving as vessels for deep introspection. ‘Enigmatic’, on the other hand, opts for detail and precision-tooled dynamics while retaining that same wide-eyed sense of wonder. Where ‘Dragonfly’ offers fractal fuel for ceremony and ritual, ‘Cloudhopping’ and ‘Psy-Fi Alien Dub’ wade knee-deep through some dub techno murk. Saving the direct and tunnelling for last, 'Banshee' and 'Chrysalis' are like two sides of the same proggy coin; one ominous, the other more optimistic and utopian.