Yellow Springs - Yellow Springs

Released: May 24

Lying somewhere in between industrial, ambient, noise, and metal; Yellow Springs is an album that feels soothing, torturous, ritualistic, and bordering on insanity all at the same time. The opening track itself goes through all of these moods in its singular nine minute runtime with ease. It starts out with deep synthetic rumblings and the sound of a lone bell in the distance, continuing in this manner until bizarre thuds join in and eventually guttural and indiscernible growling fill the air. It feels rather trance-like and almost darkly cultish in its delivery, setting an uneasy atmosphere. Then the drums come in, slamming out a quick but not utterly blasting beat.  And this is all in the first nine minutes of the album. 

The second track "Meditation II" (all tracks bear the same naming convention), is by far the shortest on the album at roughly a minute and a half. This one keeps thing simple with a hypnotic back and forth between two metallic pieces of percussion, alternating in playing the same rhythm repeatedly until it abruptly ends, giving way to the third track in which the guttural voices return alongside more synthetic textures. But it is the final track in which the full synthesis of these ideas comes together. A slow and grinding and steady beat marches on as full fledged saw waves pieces the air around it. All this while the growls mix in with screams and haunting hums that give depth and context to the rest of the track. 

The album, while short, is well-constructed and leaves an impression. Industrial music, though entertaining, can sometimes just play on the same note over and over again. Yellow Springs takes that one note and stretches it out in grinding fashion and layers it with an air of old and dark mysticism that makes for something novel. The vocalizations, while I assume are technically words, function as an enigmatic layer that takes otherwise synthetic textures and imbues them with a darkly human element that sets the tone of the album better than any other addition could.