Belial Pelegrim - The Astronaut Last Polaroid

 

Released: November 22

When I first looked at this album, I was expecting something of a narrative about space exploration and the mysteries of beyond. However, I was surprised to learn as I listened that the story here is actually about the inner world rather than outer space. It follows the story of Jack Hawthorne, a former astronaut struggling with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease as he attempts to navigate the slow fading of his mind and all the memories stored inside it. It’s a rather complex album in this regard, as it attempts to convey sonically the dizzying feel of living with such a condition. 

Throughout fifteen hypnotic and swirling tracks, Belial Pelegrim tells this story with care and ingenuity. The variety and depth of the aural textures here is amazing, with some tracks featuring tight a focused percussion that ground the otherwise spacey tones such as on the pulsing trip that is “Astral Cartographer.”  It opens up with swirling synths and what feel like an implication or a suggestion of rhythm. The small little tension hits build a certain sense of anxiety that pays off about midway through the track as deep bass hits kick up the implied speed of the track, making the implication of rhythm feel fully realized. 

Another clever technique that BP utilizes here is a penchant for making things sound aged in different ways. This manifests in various ways, such as a significant tape style degradation on “Wasp” or crispy bit crushing on “Choke Hold.” It conveys a sense of frailty in all of it, even with the succinct and clear percussion that can be heard throughout the album. It keeps this persistent feeling that everything which seems so solid can and will eventually fade away, becoming lost to the progression of time and reminding us to cherish it while we still have it. It is a beautiful and stylized album that flawlessly conveys its message.