‘Electric Blues’
An Artist’s Foray Into Truth
Electric blue is the color of the aura that spiritually attuned beings radiate, and this album is thusly named because of an experience I had in 2015, where I witnessed the color(s) of my soul. This experience changed me forever and proved to me who I was: a soul in service to God & Earth, here to assist with humanity’s reclamation of their divine inheritance. The album (which has been four years in the making) delves deeply into these themes with metaphors, electronically tribal (and tribally electronic) Afro-futuristic tones, and rhythmically soulful cadences. I trust you all will thoroughly enjoy my self-arranged, composed, written, recorded, produced, and performed message, which is love.
Although the album’s core is electricity, it begins and ends on raw, unfiltered and unmastered pieces that focus on my voice and the acoustic guitar. ‘Good Looks’ is also known as ‘The Gratitude Song’, and ‘The Ruin’ was downloaded to me via a dream in which I was playing music alongside XXXTentacion after his transition. These songs cover the themes of a grateful heart, even gracious in the face of what seems like disaster, or ‘wild change’. They are humility-focused endpieces to the album as a whole, and do well to ground the atmospheric sound of the majority of the work.
The album is divided into three acts. The first sustains from ‘Good Looks (Intro)’ to ‘Froggisattva (Interlude 1)’. The intro is interrupted brashly yet beautifully by the lo-fi-ish, electronic drums of ‘Coastin’’. This is a feel-good song that focuses on going with the flow, and allowing life to lead. ‘MegaMan’ denotes a stark contrast to the previous, emphasizing elite confidence and the ability to do whatever one wishes, desires, and wills into their reality. This power is portrayed in the vocal sample, which is one of primal chants. ‘Imaginatrix’ (previously named ‘Imagixnation’ on the visual album) focuses on the ‘how’ of the result that MegaMan brought forth. With the final line of ‘we gotta go where our imagination point’, the blended words of ‘dominatrix’ and ‘imagination’ come together to lead the initiate to gentle and lucid navigation of their rich inner world(s). This inadvertently and ultimately brings out the shadow aspects of one’s psyche, which is displayed in ‘Smilodon’ (this is the scientific name for the saber-tooth tiger). The domestication of this tiger is explored in the next song ‘Pet Soundz’, which then leads into the next intermission ‘Froggisattva (Interlude 1)’.
‘Froggi’ is a song that was downloaded from interdimensional frog-like beings. I have always been able to expand my chin as a frog does. I’ve never met anyone else who can do it. Can you? Try it. As such, it was only appropriate that I include samples of frogs from a myriad species. Frogs hold a very sacred medicine of rhythm, song, and dance, as can be seen in African and Indigenous American folklore. The rhythms of these cultures can deeply be felt in this song, which leads into ‘Mana’. Mana is the spiritual life force that permeates the physical realm, according to Polynesian mythology. In the Bible, it is “an edible substance which God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert during the 40-year period following the Exodus and prior to the conquest of Canaan.” It is also the magic system that is oftentimes used in videogames (which is where the first line of the song ‘see the blue bar at the bottom of your screen’ comes from… blue bar is for mana, red bar for health, and green bar for stamina). This song follows after ‘Froggi’ because frog medicine focuses on the throat chakra, which connects to the act of sacred consumption. ‘Antiquity’ begins with the voice of an evil-inclined being asking how much it would cost to take my soul, to which I refuse and claim it to be an antique. This song explores the lies that we have been told about history in America, and delves into what it means to see and be truth, primarily through the use of a metaphor in comparing myself to Sasuke Uchiha from the Naruto franchise (chidori/electric blues). ‘Soul Atari’ is a play on the word solitary, while also tapping into the lyric of ‘play no games, with my soul atari’. The soul is not something to be played with. ‘Soul Atari’ sonically focuses on tribal rhythms, while emphasizing lyrics that align with trumpets, which harken to the Book of Revelation. After the apocalypse, comes the volcanic resurgence of nature, which is extrapolated upon with ‘Eartha’. The single, repetitive line of ‘Talked to Mother Earth this morning, mourning, she’s still talkin’ back, talkin’ back’ evokes a melancholic yet victorious mood, and the ambiance overlayed portrays a dreamy, etheric tone- one which displays the rising of Akasha in true and brilliant finality. Closing out the second act of ‘Electric Blues’ is ‘Tangled Web’, a song that finds its home within the sacred medicine of the spider totem, and weaves a web of deeply innerstanding the karmic reciprocities of the incarnation cycle. In terms of acoustics, what we have here is another “Cloudian” (when this album released, I was known as Kristian Cloud, so I relate the style to that title) classic example of the blending of tribal and electronic sounds.
The final act begins with another interlude, entitled ‘Ninja Turtle’, which is (like its predecessor) an instrumental electronically distorted acid jazz-influenced beat. For this piece, I’ve sampled various birds, such as owls, foreshadowing the rebirth of spirituality within the next four tracks. ‘Telekinesis’ (previously named ‘Hold the Space’) gives off a nonchalant vibe, exercising its right to sovereignty of feelings, and within this sovereignty, a melancholic treatise of being unimpressed with the society at large. ‘Chronokinesis’ (previously titled ‘Keep the Time’) blends well with the previous song, whereas ‘Tele’ ends on the line ‘never was a space or time where you and I as not’, ‘Chrono’ begins on the line ‘never was a time or space where you and I was not’. This song is the celebratory, ‘joie de vivre piece’ of the album, and as such, leads into two thematically denser songs in ‘Umbrakinesis’ and ‘The Ruin’. The inspiration of ‘Umbra’ comes from the superpower of darkness manipulation (represented by melanin in the 3D world), and the understanding that one must know their enemy if one ever wishes to defeat them. ‘The Ruin’ touches upon a slight hopefulness, as it is another purely acoustic piece, where I exemplify the neverending bliss of being ‘the flute that the universe plays’. Thank you for listening to this soulful aspect of my eternally flowering heart.
Listen on Bandcamp:
Also, hear the extended instrumental version (49 tracks long) here:
Thank you very much for reading, witnessing, and for listening.
