She moves, shakes, and trembles to the beat. Her feet advance inconsistently—at times slow and mesmerizing, at others horrifyingly rigid. Is it an animated corpse, or perhaps something that was never alive at all: a puppet? No, this is something even more unsettling. There is no escaping it. Backed into a corner, you watch as it inches closer. You cannot sidestep and let it pass—it has come for you. What it will do once it catches you, do you care to find out?
Winding tones drift through a backdrop of brooding ambience that quivers and shudders, balancing serenity with dread. There is no point resisting the inevitable, so you surrender—or perhaps you only wish you could. The sweat on your skin betrays any hope of inner peace. Bells toll, their reverberations ricocheting through the mix. The performer commands not only the air but time itself, recalling earlier notes before banishing them again in a dizzying display of sonic sorcery.
The penultimate track leaves me wedged between a tugboat and a hard place. A blaring horn hangs suspended in time while opposing forces grind relentlessly against one another, slowly wearing themselves into oblivion. The wizard now commands every one of my senses. I am merely his plaything, batted about until I cease to exist before he moves on to another unfortunate soul, leaving my limp form for the buzzards. Strange that I cannot compare this experience to anything else. I remain frozen in discomfort, yet I find myself returning to this wonderfully disconcerting album again and again.