Double Geography - The Indoor Gardener (2020)

To say we are "excited" to get this phenomenal album by Double Geography out would be a monumental understatement - it has been on rotation here at INVINC HQ pretty much constantly for a couple of months now and still never ceases to amaze and impress.

Double Geography is Duncan Thornley, one half of Weird Weather who have released on Emotional Response, Going Good and their own Whip+Lash imprint, exploring sometimes hypnotic, sometimes abstract experimental tech-tronica.

Double Geography, however, takes us deep into the undergrowth, into the world of plants. With tracks named after a variety of flora the music could loosely be described as laidback ‘balearica'. However, where much of that genre (if it can even be called a genre) has spawned so much insipid, mediocre coffee table ‘lounge music', The Indoor Gardener has retained that crucial element of tripped out psychedelia that transports us just that little bit higher.

The music feels warm, melodic, emotive.....but listen closely and underneath the surface is a complex depth where you'll find a lot more is going on and it gives the whole piece of work an edginess undeniably synthetic in nature. Like an organic, analogue paradise re-imagined through the mind of an artificial intelligence. The atmospheres created being less a hazy "dreaminess" than a dreamlike cinematic soundtrack to a mystical reality.

Technical wizardry is also very much apparent. Thornley's day job as an audio engineer has paid off well here. The unique character of many of the sounds we're hearing seem as rich, complex and diverse as the natural world that inspired their creation. His mastery of the equipment at his fingertips is obvious.

So relax, take a deep breath and take a wander round this botanic paradise - a psychedelic Garden of Eden for the 21st century.

Artwork by Penny Klein