unfinished portraits: memory lake

After a period of uncertain drifting between pressing delays and schedule mishaps, Lobster is finally back and rolling and bringing more snappy electro through the Theremin caverns with this long-awaited and indelible EP from Unfinished Portraits. A collector of hardware and purveyor of the warm analogue sound, Unfinished Portraits' path is a sincere endeavour that eschews any throw-away comparisons and truly brings the raw end of the hardware techno sound to it's natural home, nestled comfortably in beautiful frequencies in the inner ear. From the off this is a spiritual and mystical excursion, Mixed Messages curdling a thick, luminescent slime in a newly packed cauldron; wafts of hypothermal gases fill the nostrils and send one into a spiral of delusional visions and trances. A series of repetitive meditative cycles. Closeness breaks the loop with glowing icicle stalactites glistening amongst cave-reverberated footsteps and a long frozen Drexciyan cavern finally unearthed by explorers thousands of years in the future. Title track Memory Lake segues into view in it's own time. Riding off of the back of newly unearthed socio-political scandals, public paranoia and a recently formed revolutionary faction. It's Adam Curtis' audio calling card sent from a post-apocalyptic satellite, a call to arms and a uniting vision of a free future, warmed with hopeful but slightly off-kilter artefacts, and tainted with unsettling but oddly comforting melodies. Obscure Alternatives rides waves of condensed sea air and effluent straight into the minds eye and out through the back of the universe. A trip into lucid, mind-altered territory where alternate histories collide with shape-shifting temporary settings and circumstances. Drawing the release to a close is the simply-titled X. A cathartic, sludgy, hammer-driven acid mould, pressed into the shape of a mallet that simultaneously smashes the status quo whilst shattering into a thousand pieces upon impact. A slightly cold, alkaline taste skirts the edges and a higher than normal pH is left on the palette of the tongue. Definitely not your standard acid burner.