23/01/2023
SI022 — Ancient Life Subversion by Aphelion is out now. Available as a cassette + digital bundle.
https://steepincline.bandcamp.com/album/si022-ancient-life-subversion
Our first release of 2023 comes from Bristol based polymath Aphelion. Whether it's curating parties with Psycho Therapy Sessions, or performing as part of noise-techno trio Heathen Ritual, Aphelion consistently envelops the listener in a world completely of their own design.
Presenting us with their debut solo release, "Ancient Life Subversion" effortlessly blends elements of meditative electronics with explosions of club-ready beats, and ghostly disembodied voices, to create an eery and infectious atmosphere.
Never satisfied staying in one place, the release shape-shifts it's way from the understated drama of opener "a prophet trapped in glass", into the glitched out dance of "angel speak", landing at the tribal drums and haunting vocals of closing track "falling alone is so beautiful", featuring VRGF.
Having recently opened proceedings at our live showcase in September, we're beyond excited to be able to release Aphelion's debut album into the world.
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All human life is there, flecked on the Earth in nascent form. A calm and conscious plague, formed in fire and water, animated by mythos and governed by ritual.
You stood under a red sun next to your family, absent your dead sons, and heard the words of an angel. Some vibration (‘the most intense’) delivered you unto this pasture and you will cultivate its seeds - children, flora, tools, poetry.
Language glows. It streams through your land like lava in arabesques; an unfamiliar script snaking through hills, lakes, settlements, up your legs and into your chest. There it gestates a song. One day you will sing it and conjure the unsayable.
Under your feet, beyond the dry soil, lies a city - its planes fly 6 feet below your body and you occasionally feel their rumble. Lying by a waning fire you - lacking astronomy - sit atop a metropolis in ignorance.
What if none of this were true?
History, the artifact - an enigma passed through fingers.
Memory, the monument - a totem preserved under glass.
Digging your grave, you bore a hole through to the city. Falling to your death you glimpse skyscrapers, cars, multitudes of people and a world you could never understand.
8 track album
