‘back to the sun’ is not a normal record. New Mexico based Jeremy Curtis’ latest record is an avowed passion project that explores the human experience in the way that he seeks to bring to life. A smorgasbord of experimental electronic sounds that range from robotic to hypnotic to a blend of the two, back to the sun is wonderfully eccentric in style and substance. The beats are fairly normal, restrained even to a mellow simplicity. But there’s a swooning and fixated metallic energy to the production that makes it definitively unique. It brings out feelings of solace in solitude, but in its weirdness you’re taken to places of wonder and madness. It’s innately dystopic, both in the vocal delivery and the robotic sounds that the record echoes.
Highlights for me come towards the record’s second half where jer/jer starts to get into lengthier and more experimental compositions. A track like ‘again and again’, a downright hauntingly hypnotic piece that takes visceral control over you and grapples your entire sensory perception while it numbs you is a particular highlight. Then there’s also the three part, nine minute, magnum opus ‘to what end’. Replete with ambient sounds and empty sections, it’s an art piece first without too much melody even set to it. But really, it’s the titular track that had me most astounded. ‘back to the sun’ is absolutely frantic, a haywire and hypnotic piece that feels like its going everywhere all at once.
‘back to the sun’, as I mentioned at the start, is not an album for a pleasant or simple listen. It’s experimental through and through, bringing to life a myriad of different sonic ideas and concoctions that Jeremy Curtis has vividly imagined with a meticulous method to his madness. A metallic piece of transportive experimental electronic work.