Texture - Parasomnia (FREE).

http://official.fm/playlists/63759

There’s something about that style of stream-of-consciousness lyricism that allows anyone to relate to it.  I suppose that’s probably because everyone has those words buried deep inside their head, whether they know it or not (or want to admit it or not).  So is the case with Black Lantern Music hypnotic ringleader TEXTURE‘s new EP, ‘PARASOMNIA’.  This is the third EP in a trilogy from him, each titled after primal conditions of human beings in the filth of the 21st Century (the first, Aphasia, refers to the loss of the ability to understand written or spoken language, typically due to traumatic brain damage; the second, Sythaesthesia, is a sensation in the human body manifesting itself in a part, or sense, which was not originally stimulated).

Parasomnia, in a sense, is the epitome of the trilogy: the production and lyricism cut directly to gullet of what it feels like to be living in the 21st Century.  The album matches our plight in a lot of ways, as you listen, you aren’t sure where it’s going next, or how you’re going to fit into that place you know will eventually exist.  ‘Parasomnia’ refers to deep sleep dysfunctions and disorders; it makes sense, do we not feel as if we cannot wake from archaic, trivial 20th Century existence?  When will we eventually flip that railroad-switch?  Where are the tracks leading?

Texture’s lyricism has always been top-notch (as a lyricist, a background in poetry and writing can only result in  eloquence, intelligence, and identity), but he’s managed to challenge himself — and therefor the listener — on Parasomnia.  Whispers of product placements, mugwumps, grungy feedback, BBC news, and modern truths which may or may not have been revised over and over again for the past some-odd thousands of years… Something about a Nike travel bag from Singapore… about being thousands of miles away in the snow. 

It’s not so much that he wants to tell stories; he wants to create  symbolism-based, image-inducing worlds in the listener’s head (i.e. the “setting”), for him/her to make their own stories in (this might also attribute to the fact that it feels like anyone can relate to this EP).  The Hassan i Sabbah/Burroughs-ian lyrical finale sums up the previous tracks well, as Texture carries the torch of a generation growing older and more disenfranchised: “Nothing is True.  Everything is Permitted.”

The production on Parasomnia cannot be forgotten about, however; it is very, very tasty.  With work from masters of their craft like Dustmotes, Krowne, and Monkeytribe, the album speaks through sweeping, delayed glitches and valleys of 21st Century sound (can’t forget about DJ Symatic who provides some amazing turntablism on “Flipping Over”; not to mention Texture himself producing the first, instrumental, track mastered by Morphamish).  Each track is very different too, so you’re getting a bit of everything in terms of beats (the lyricism ties it all together).

Download this.  Listen to it on the train as the graffiti-ed factories with broken windows fly by… The woman to your left is e-mailing her partner how she thinks they should “take a break”… Someone else is jotting down hand-written scribbles ahead of you into a leather-bound notebook… The lyrics are bouncing around in your head, unable to get out, they’ll become a part of you, and you will make your own stories.

-Sonny

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