Mind’s Journey is the sort of project that once stumbled upon is close to impossible to walk away from. Rillivid’s experimental portrayal of electronic rock has a hugely expressive and often theatrical feel to it. The opening and title track gives you a taster of what’s in store, but it’s only really when track 2 Trauma begins to play that you get to fully witness the exploratory and free nature of the artist’s creative drive.
The title of this project is just about the most appropriate and fitting description of the whirlwind within which you find yourself as the music emerges. Trauma alone has so much about it that is intense and overwhelming – the track develops and evolves and re-animates itself consistently, and with each changing moment your mind is simultaneously carried along in this white-water wave of sound.
There’s an unavoidable level of darkness within the music, They Called Me Outsider is perhaps the first moment at which this feeling really makes itself known. The track moves from the gentle and haunting to the intense and manic, and back once again, all in the most striking and poignant way. There’s a vast sense of storytelling to the music, this track in particular – there’s a feeling of it being part of something more than a single track; a movie, a piece of dramatic theatre – something with immense visual imagery to accompany the tale that unfolds.
Crippling The Madness bends the mind even further and is quite powerfully placed following the inner trauma of Trauma. The sounds presented here are notably repetitive and hypnotic, the soundscape surrounds and envelopes you as you listen, and once again it’s almost impossible not to pay full attention to it all.
Production wise the music throughout the release has been given the perfect polish so as to really bring out both the quiet and the loud with brilliant vibrancy. There’s power in the sound at each end of the spectrum; there’s a creepy intensity, a good example of which is the half way mark during A Void Fulfilled, and on occasion there’s the calmness of subtlety – certain moments in which the mind is left to its own devices, abandoned by the preceding wall of sound.
Anyone who revels in and seeks out experimental or alternative electronic music will be consistently blown away by the progression of tracks on this album. The varying emotions and instrumental choices are seemingly endless. For Better Or Worse seems well placed again within the collection, yet once more it is a giant stride in some completely new and unpredictable direction – not unlike the frequent wandering of the human mind in general. There’s actually a slightly circus-like sound to the riffs and the rhythm of this particular track that stands out significantly from its peers. As things develop, the music mutates into a full-on, trance-inspired wave of distorted synths and colliding melodies.
Human Disconnection is a striking moment within the project. The opening vocal snippet presents a calmness, though it’s an atmosphere that sends a bit of a chill through you – this sense of darkness preparing to re-emerge is ever present, and it refuses to let too much joyful energy in for fear that it might tar the power and depth of the project. The concept of disconnection is notably touched upon throughout the track, and this is something that you really pick up on at several different times within the album.
The titles chosen for these instrumental explosions of artistry all hold a certain level of strength. The concept’s hinted at are briefly defined, and the rest of the journey is determined by the music and the mind of the listener working in unison to create a certain set of ideas or images. In each case, the result is quite mesmerising. It’s an incredibly powerful effect, and it’s a skill not too many have been able to master in creative production.
No More Terrors In My Head has a distant and dreamlike energy to it that again seems well placed as the penultimate track in the collection. Following this, Synchronicity opens up as a hugely industrial sounding collection of beats and sounds. Each sound is short and quick, the music on the whole has a manic and jittery output. It’s unsettling, and actually, again; brilliantly placed as the final moment spent between sender and receiver.
The electronic outburst of retro tones and violently trembling ideas is inescapable, and at this point within the project it would be an absolute waste not to see it through to the final moments. The music develops into a track that seems all at once light and heavy – not thick with bass-lines or big beats, but weighted out with a storm of energy and notes and moments. It’s almost as if your mind is suddenly now spiraling uncontrollably into the abyss. It’s captivating, and really, the project in its entirety is unmissable – especially for electronic music fans hoping to discover something unapolagetically new and exciting.
Download the album Mind’s Journey via Bandcamp. Find and follow Rillivid on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter.
