BEST EDM SONG OF 2023

The chop of Cousins guest mix on Otologic Monday Morning program - Stream the full show on NTS with great selections from @otologic in the first hour.

https://www.nts.live/shows/otologic/episodes/otologic-10th-april-2023

Underwater Photograph By Sherry Zheng

NTS Radio - Otologic w/ Cousin (10/04/23)

The lyrical themes of this song stem from a crazy dream I had. I have only ever once had a true Lucid Dream, which prompted me to write this song.

In my dream, I was in a metropolitan landscape, underneath a bridge, and all of a sudden, a dragon appeared and began destroying the bridge. I began to film this with my phone, since I was bewildered to see a mythical creature in real life. Unfortunately, this somehow? drew the dragon's attention and I had to run away. Suddenly, the dragon disappeared and as I was running away, some CIA agents in suits began chasing me as I looked for a way to escape.

I came to a lake where I was able to get on a Jetski and escape. But unfortunately, the agents caught up with me. I had a wild theory that the agents had created the dragon in a lab and it had escaped, and I had footage. For that reason I was being pursued. Eventually I ended up in a wind-tunnel like concrete structure and the agents caught up with me once more.

I told them that I had backed up the footage to the internet and if anything happened to me, I would immediately release the footage on the internet exposing the conspiracy, which would result in governmental collapse. All of a sudden the dream changed, and I was in a shopping centre. I noticed at this point that something was not quite right and came to the realisation that I was dreaming.

At this point, I began to trial a few things since I identified that I was in control of the dream. I began destroying the shopping centre with flames from my hands. I began to fly above the clouds. I never felt so exhilarated and powerful in my waking life. I began to grow to the size of a giant. All of a sudden I became so gigantic that I burst through the glass domed shopping centre and could see a land of crystalline skyscrapers stretching miles. I began to destroy them with my hands of fire. After all, I knew it was not real and a dream. Then I began to wake up, and the sky cracked and collapsed on top of me.

With this imagery I attempted to design album artwork to reflect the fantastical nature of my dream using AI image generation.

One of my all-time favourite movies is Christopher Nolan's "Inception", so naturally some allusions to this movie ended up coming into the lyrics of the song.

Originally in 2020 when I wrote this song, the lyrics were entirely different. Like many others at the time, my plans for international had been well-and-truly cancelled due to the emergence of COVID. The lyrics were considerably more depressing and focused on feeling trapped and robbed of a gap year that I had worked so hard to achieve, after 5 years of medical studies that were incredibly taxing on my mental health. Feeling burnt out, I was unable to travel due to strict governmental regulations worldwide which influenced the preliminary version of this song. As this era passed, the lyrical themes no longer provided a message that I wished to present in my music. For that reason I changed the lyrics to reflect a crazy surreal experience that I had in the world of dreams. 
lyrics
LYRICS:
Fading rays of daylight
Fall into the dark night
Enter the wormhole
Subdivide my soul

Can you feel the change, there's something not quite right in this vicinity
Loss of gravity, I'm soaring through the skies freely
Hands of scorching heat, I lay waste to the diamond skyline pillars
False reality, the sun sets in the east

Open up your eyes to the possibility that we are stuck inside a dream right now
Now my subconscious will turn on me, the lightning storm approaches
Monsters shift their piercing gaze, I flee, the hills inside my skin engorge, remember
I'm the one who built this world, expand beyond a thousand peaks, I stand

Time eternal inside my universe
Lucid architect, I cannot be stopped by projections

Cracks in the sky, an earthquake is shaking me
Sound the alarm, I hope I'm not awakening
Breaking the glass of the lucid dream

Lucid Dream

Lucid Dream - HIVEMIND X

Nak’s sound is immersive, otherworldly, psychedelic; all grounded in a love for storytelling through music.

Originally (and always) a fan of Melbourne's underground scene, Isabel is drawn to DJ sets that take the listener on a journey - whether that be through mood, genre or tempo - to create something beautiful and entirely anew. This is a quality she explores in her own sets, weaving together intricate, spiraling blends of IDM, techno and bass to create a dreamy, glistening tapestry of sound.

@isabel-nak

Mirrors 019 - Nak

The lyrics tell the story of a treasure-hunter who seeks a legendary hoard of riches sealed deep within an Egyptian Pyramid. The Pharoah - whose tomb the protagonist plunders - was renowned as a cruel and greedy ruler, who revelled in hedonistic excess at the expense of his subjects, many of whom instead died of starvation under his selfish and wasteful rule. The Pharoah's dying wish was diabolical and born of self-interest; to bury all his material wealth with him and take it to the after-life.

As the treasure-hunter advances through the cleverly constructed tomb, he enters a chamber of immeasurable wealth. But the Pharaoh, with his evil guile, designed a room to trap those who enter with the aim of stealing his wealth. The treasure hunter perishes, and one thousand years pass.

Nature intervenes, with an earthquake of gigantic magnitude completely decimating the Pharaoh's pyramid. With this event, the riches hidden within spill out into the Nile River. Although the Pharoah thought his wealth would be preserved with him for eternity, nature is the true victor. It is Mother Earth which reclaims its elements, which were mined and transformed by human efforts into fleeting hedonistic objects and displays of opulence.
lyrics
LYRICS:
Sealed with your sins
Gold kept within
Steal from your kin
Starved with a grin
Traps are all around
Challenge to be found

Come to plunder
How do I enter these halls
Riddles ensue, match up the symbols to get through
Doors open wide, where the Pharaoh's wealth cannot hide
As I enter, the door closes, I'm sealed inside
Mortar and stone, locked inside this cage filled with gold
Gasping for breath, passing Osiris in death

The Pharaoh has his vengeance
Takes post-mortem life
Through his final designs the flies are caught in a web
Petrified, vilified, hidden deep inside
No one will take what is mine
Mummified, cryptified, his immortal prison
Entombed, embalmed, with no way out
His dying wishes filled with avaricious greed
His soul will never sail through the field of reeds

A time many years from now
The golden tomb is found
The Pyramids are downed
With a thunderous sound
The Nile rushes in
The corpses turn and grin
Their bones return to dust
The hoard is turned to rust

Pyramid Plunder

Pyramid Plunder - HIVEMIND X

Backwards Cavern - Fractured Chapel
Fractured Chapel [ST093 / Secuencias Temporales]

Produced by Adam McCoy aka Backwards Cavern
Mastered by Jorge Eafhm at Secuencias Temporales Studio
Artwork by Scencist
Released by Secuencias Temporales from México City, México
Release Date: September 22nd, 2025

Melbourne-based producer Adam McCoy, formerly known as Citizen Maze, debuts his new alias Backwards Cavern.

The project began taking shape in 2020 during the COVID lockdowns, a period where isolation and lifestyle changes sparked a new musical direction and a desire to work on more glitchy and open-ended experimentation. Backwards Cavern represents a step beyond the constraints Adam felt about Citizen Maze, while still carrying forward familiar elements such as sweeping pads, field recordings, and distinctive progressions.

Fractured Chapel is a collection of works written between 2020 and 2024, capturing the gradual shift from Citizen Maze to his new project, Backwards Cavern. Some tracks were first created with Citizen Maze in mind but were later transformed to reflect a different sound and direction.

Each piece draws inspiration from specific environments from urban spaces, coastal settings to mountainous landscapes, using place and atmosphere to shape mood and tone. Musically, the album pulls from IDM, cinematic and tribal textures, and subtle drum and bass influences, reflecting a balance between experimentation and evolution.

Secuencias Temporales
https://soundcloud.com/secuencias_temporales
https://www.facebook.com/secuenciastemporales
https://www.instagram.com/secuencias_temporales
https://secuenciastemporales.bandcamp.com

Oslated.
http://www.oslated.com

Fractured Chapel

Support & Buy

Backwards Cavern - Fractured Chapel [Secuencias Temporales]

Always a pleasure to support our good friends over at @secuencias_temporales, this time with a new artist from a familiar background. 

Melbourne-based producer Adam McCoy, formerly known as Citizen Maze, debuts his new alias Backwards Cavern.

The project began taking shape in 2020 during the COVID lockdowns, a period where isolation and lifestyle changes sparked a new musical direction and a desire to work on more glitchy and open-ended experimentation. Backwards Cavern represents a step beyond the constraints Adam felt about Citizen Maze, while still carrying forward familiar elements such as sweeping pads, field recordings, and distinctive progressions.

Fractured Chapel is a collection of works written between 2020 and 2024, capturing the gradual shift from Citizen Maze to his new project, Backwards Cavern. Some tracks were first created with Citizen Maze in mind but were later transformed to reflect a different sound and direction.

Each piece draws inspiration from specific environments from urban spaces, coastal settings to mountainous landscapes, using place and atmosphere to shape mood and tone. Musically, the album pulls from IDM, cinematic and tribal textures, and subtle drum and bass influences, reflecting a balance between experimentation and evolution.

Written and Produced by Adam McCoy in Melbourne, Australia.
Mastering by Eafhm at Secuencias Temporales Studio, México.
Released by Secuencias Temporales from Mexico
Release Date: September 22th 2025
Artwork by Scencist
Cat: ST093

Free Download here:
https://secuenciastemporales.bandcamp.com/ 

Support the label here:

Secuencias Temporales
@secuencias_temporales
www.facebook.com/secuenciastemporales 
www.instagram.com/secuencias_temporales 
https://secuenciastemporales.bandcamp.com/ 


AF Premiere: Backwards Cavern - Nomad Static [Secuencias Temporales][OUT!!22.09.25]

I discovered Adam through his EP on @analogueattic, which has become one of my longstanding favourite local releases.  I've been a big fan of his creations ever since.

I love the way he always manages to find the perfect balance between ambient and dance, with many of his tracks featuring acoustic instruments. Every new track he sends me is even more charming, innovative and unique than the last.

Thanks for this beautiful mix Adam! @citizenmaze

Downloads enabled

Animix Ten: Citizen Maze

HIVEMIND X is the solo project of Dr Hamish Mackay: Songwriter, Guitarist, Vocalist, Bassist, and Music Producer from Melbourne, Australia. His original music is a unique experimental blend of Progressive Rock incorporating multi-genre influences of Metal, Indie, Folk, Classical, Ambient, Electronic and Orchestral music.

Pyramid Plunder - HIVEMIND X

HIVEMIND X

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