'Night Of The Endless Beyond', the sophomore album by Lord Of The Isles AKA Neil McDonald for the ESP Institute, had almost become a mythical piece of work. The tracks very slowly crept into formation from the lowest depths of 2021, and once the completed album finally made the leap from creation into manufacturing, an entirely new onslaught of follies and delays awaited at the pressing plant. We began to laugh, for not only did Mario Hugo’s otherworldly sleeve artwork visually translate this music so well, but it was an uncanny premonition to the album being lost in space, falling through a black hole, evaporating into the aether like a dream that never really happened. But, at long last, ground control has confirmed contact! It did happen, it will arrive, and it’s not a myth.
	Listening to 'Night Of The Endless Beyond' now feels like the return of a strayed friend, one whose distance left us pining for an embrace. Although this Techno relies on unassuming means, there is a remarkably complex and persuasive emotional statement embedded here, insisting we learn to endure the long game and allow ourselves patience to investigate and appreciate the minutiae contained not only within the notes, but their negative space. From its introduction, through its mellow crests and valleys, there is a conveyance of restraint — subtle dynamics that quietly beg for attention, repetition so hypnotic that imaginary melodies are inescapable, transient peaks so deliberately scaled that we mourn the subsequent decay. In accordance with Neil’s ESP debut, 'In Waves', we never feel attacked by instrumentation but shielded from sharp edges, able to step inside the music, breathe the air it occupies and know its true intentions, whether bright or bleak.
	Just prior to the album close, a film dialogue excerpt summarizes everything quite honestly by proposing, “The truth of the universe is waiting … the truth of what is … it’s all going to go away … everything … into blackness … the void … and nobody is in charge.”
	“…and what do you do with that?”
	We stare long into the 'Night Of The Endless Beyond' and answer… “You smile.”

Buy from ESP

C2 - Quadralogue - SNIPPET

B2 - Together - SNIPPET

A2 - Isolarian - SNIPPET

A1 - Endless Beyond - SNIPPET

Sound Of The System #33 : Ghost In The Machine

Plastique De Rêve & Andrew Claristidge

broadcast live on reboot.fm Berlin - 29.10.2022

playlist:

 Bass Kittens: Real-Time Travel Machine
/ Voice of Alpha 60 in Alphaville, Jean-Luc Godard, 1965
 Din A Testbild: Satisfactory
Abdulla Rashim: Vestal Witness
/ Scanner: A Piece Of Monologue
Laurie Anderson: O Superman
Tim Blake: Synthèse Intemporelle (Crystal Machine live at Le Palace, Paris, 1977)
Ange Du Bizarre: Invocation
Drexciya: Temple Of Dos De Agua
Men At Werk: A Spanner In The Werk (D'arcangelo Moody Reform)
Principles Of Geometry: Cmd Ctrl (Brainwaltzera Remix)
Dalo: Zafram (Otter Space Mix)
Steve Moore: 248 Years
Joel Fajerman: Sirocco
The Residents: The Festival Of Death
Carl Abrahamsson & Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: Slowly
Geier Aus Stahl: Wendeltreppe
Koudlam: Crypto Intro 
Al Lover: Cosmic Joke
Cosmo Vitelli: High Blood Pressure

Cover illustration: artist unknown

(used exclusively for illustration of the audio archive and promotion of the cover artists' work, no copyright infringement intended, please contact SOTS if you feel you are not credited appropriately or that this is an infringement of your rights and we will credit accordingly or remove the image)

Sound Of The System #33 : Ghost In The Machine

Live recording taken from the desk at Chantry Hall, Norwich for the Even Launch event (22/10/22).
Make Noise Shared System.
Ciat-Lonbarde Sidrax.

Luke Sanger - LIVE @ Chantry Hall (Even Launch)

Flex

arbitrary14 (A2)

Mads Emil Nielsen: Black Box 3
December 2022
https://arbitraryproject.com/Black-Box-3
https://madsemilnielsen.bandcamp.com/album/black-box-3

LP / CD + DL | @madsemilnielsen

LP / CD

Mads Emil Nielsen: Untitled (Wind)

@ortisei

Bandcamp:
https://itsthecitysproblemnow.bandcamp.com/track/in-blue-citysproblem-mix

In Blue (CITYSPROBLEM Mix)

this fleeting feeling

Dinas Emrys

Welcome to the ESP Institute. Please remove your shoes at the door. Thank you.