tunes of negation: like the stars forever & ever

Shackleton’s Tunes Of Negation ensemble return for a ceremonious 2nd album trip into expansive psychedelic terrain following their acclaimed first chapter with a pineal payload where Gurdjieff meets Conrad Schnitzler in deep dub space. Regrouping Sam Shacketon, Takumi Motokawa and Raphael Meinhart, with Heather Leigh guesting on album highlight ’Naked Shall I Return’, Shackleton’s open-ended project continues to soar across musical borders with growing confidence in their astral clinamen that suggests themes of impermanence, rebirth, and transcendence. It's primed for gently getting out of your gourd and glyding the astral armchair highways in a way which has signified all Shackleton’s best work of late. The six tracks are typically long enough to encourage full mind/body synchronisation and immersion, aligning your chakras in a slowly purposeful flow from the cascading organs and babbling drums of ‘Mountain and Waterfalls’, thru the spellbinding suspension of Heather Leigh’s possessed tongue in acres of Coil-esque synth plumes and militant snares on the outstanding centrepiece, ‘Naked Shall I Return’, with the rolling 15 minute epic ‘Impermanence’ illustrating Shackleton’s transition from dubstep pied piper to modern day shaman. ‘Like The Stars Forever And Ever’ is further evidence of mystic energy still out there in the ether between club music, the after-party-life, and lockdown bedrooms, and a sterling example of Shackleton's vital role in the fabric of contemporary electronic music.