This is the 9th album released under the name Entheogenic. As some of you may have noticed, I really enjoy me some Entheogenic. Each album has had something special within them for me to discover and A Singularity Encoded is no different.
This album continues the trend of the last several Entheogenic albums including more vocals and acoustic guitars than albums of old. What is immediately noticeable to me however, is the unique songwriting on display here. There is something less formulaic, less switching back and forth between repeating sections that sometimes make the other albums hard to listen through all the way. This was something I definitely heard in Enthymesis and I am glad it has become a trend.
In some strange way, that I believe to be intentional though not at all obvious, is the way the album repeats certain phrases. Pieces including a descending bass line and vocal lines from the opening track Oak Seers, play in Hamra Dum (in a different tempo) and Asherah (harmonized against completely different melodies). Various dub sections pop in and out of Star Wisdom of Bon, Asherah, and the closing track Genuine Abstract. Finally, Star Wisdom of Bon starts off in 5/4 just to mix things up.
I have often felt that previous albums from Entheogenic have had a very "loose" mix to them. I feel there are tighter, more thought out effects and sonic landscapes to this album. I can tell a lot of time, thought, and dedication was put into this album carefully constructing it.
Overall I think A Singularity Encoded is one of the best Entheogenic albums to date and never feels like a quickly thrown together palette of similar effects and dull songwriting. A Singularity Encoded is imaginative, bittersweet, and balanced. If you are looking for a nice, downtempo, yet highly psychedelic album, this is for you. If you like Entheogenic, you should probably listen to this album and give it a shot.
https://entheogenic-usr.bandcamp.com/album/a-singularity-encoded
http://www.entheogenic.net/index.html