Fentanyl Embrace - The Ether Variations (2020)

'The Ether Variations' -- An album due to drop last year, only arriving now due to the implementation of #TheCoolEra. Albums dropping fresh off the presses as and when they come in, no more contrived hype cycles.

Fentanyl Embrace draws upon the tone and emotion of 90's rave, British council estate melancholy and brings its hypnotic synths into an intense, modern drone that penetrates. From the opening seconds of the album, the relentless nature falls upon you, with opening track 'Ether I' daring to sustain one chord for its entire duration. The artist's lust for loops and repetition recalls fellow British ambient artist Sangam.

All tension, no release. This is the sound of a norther, working class British heartland, left to rot and forgotten in time by its supposed socialist leaders, who are now too busy sipping pain au latte, fiddling with their new toys in trendy London cafes and responding to Donald Trump tweets. Welcome to the sound of the #BlueWall. Tesco value lager, Tesco value cig papers, Tesco value credit cards maxxed out, Tesco value 5G radiation poles, Tesco value Brexit postcards to nowhere, and for nothing... The Ether Variations... nothing more than a desolate memory of what once was.