There’s no getting away from it, Boys Age resides on an island with an inhabitant of one. No one is making music that sounds even a bit like it, which makes him such an intriguing and consuming artist to explore. Psylence Room came out back in February as a ltd edition Bandcamp-only release and it’s an eccentric treat. Odd dalliances with imaginary anime soundtracks aside, it is this squelchy, funk-indebted, bedroom pop, I feel, where his original vision reaches beautiful, damaged perfection.
The vocals, a curious half-formed mumble, intone cryptic, faintly claustrophobic images that evoke a sense of self-induced madness vibrating with intrusive hallucinations. The rhythms are lithe and sinuous and oddly scented, and those repeated, warbling, sliding guitars ooze indefatigably throughout, their undulating pitch bending as if trapped within a tiring cassette. Psylence Room is a lubricious, idiosyncratic delight.
Then come a series of meditative and hypnotic instrumentals – they feel late night and insomnia-riddled, sometimes toying with minimalist electronic sound palettes. This sounds like music made by a lonely android who has forgotten he isn’t human; Moon’s concept writ large as
biomechatronic soundscape. The twinkling and vibrating throb of odd synthetic sounds shimmer strangely and intensely. These are notable too for their brevity but their surreal and at times dizzying reverberations don’t feel slight, though they do at times feel deliberately alien. VI is a particular highlight- its melody almost entirely broken, its disjointed, futuristic sound experiments collapsing with fractured beauty.
Long live Boys Age; long may he create these curious intrusions into the subconscious. Soundtrack your neon-lit nights in the way they should be: in a darkened room, curtains drawn, headphones sinking these slippery sounds into your tired mind! You will see things…
“The sound of water currents and bubbles popping lulls you to gently sleep
But you think it something is wrong,
This dream is similar to your room…”
Written by M.A Welsh (Misophone)