- Long-form psychedelic techno journeys.
- Last summer, I was hanging out at a dance music festival on the banks of the Feather River, which snakes through the dramatic canyons of former gold country in Northern California. Unexpectedly, a friend emerged from the woods with hiking poles. He told me he had been hiking the Pacific Crest Trail for months. Later, over beers, he recalled climbing a 6,000-foot peak while listening to Steve Reich, likening his multi-thousand mile hike to a durational rhythmic performance.
George Thompson, too, spent weeks wandering the wilderness in service of art. His latest single consists of two dark, trippy tracks that feel like the dance floor equivalent of a journey into the underbrush. "Manipulate" finds uncanny drama in two chant-like vocals falling in-and-out of phase, while "Textured Land" manages to turn just a few elements—a pulsing bass line, Alexandra Grübler's deadpan vocals, subtly morphing synths—into an expansive, 24-minute journey. Both tracks play subliminal tricks on the listener's perception, as though Black Merlin has translated the visceral rhythm of his walkabouts into warped, elemental dance music.
TracklistA Manipulate
B Textured Land