Luminosity Device

Album review

At nearly 50 years of age, Anthony Child is calm. That’s because he has got nothing left to prove. After all, he is cited as the pioneer of English industrial techno (1994's Surgeon), and seems to be enjoying the freedom to decide from one day to the next whether he wants to put out an album or not. In 2016, a journey to the Hawaiian jungle gave birth to a long format release (Electronic Recordings from Maui Jungle Vol. 1), followed, a few months later, by a second, cosmically influenced by far-flung galaxies (From Farthest Known Objects).

Then, a pause. After a two-year hiatus spent playing on his new favourite toy, modular synths with his English compatriot Blawan, gadget geek that he is, the former member of the British Murder Boys set off on his travels again, but journeying within this time, taking as his point of departure Bardo Thödol, the Tibetan book of the dead which could also be translated as "liberation through listening in intermediary states." As the reader will have guessed, Surgeon remains faithful to his techno trip, where psychedelic textures function as mental missives and where the galloping rhythm section knocks you off your feet, and the trance grabs you like a cold after a day in the snow. Close your eyes to savour it. © Sylvain Di Cristo / Qobuz