If the relentless barrage of information pellets and soundbites ever overcomes you, Granada, Spain producer MEDICIN’s new album PRIMAVERA provides a more therapeutic, introspective approach. This is his third album this year, so clearly a lot of introspection was required, but that’s true of all of us. A little more of the same among humanity as a whole and we might not be in this stinking mess, but I digress. ‘Primavera’ means ‘Springtime’ in Spanish, and it rings as pertinent, as the project feels like the expulsion of bad spirits and the resulting sense of new life, like some emotional support Bambi. The album forces the listener’s attention away from the endless content drive and invites them on a journey down a misty lake within, bring snacks.
The album was created using layered loops and chords made entirely of reverb, and MEDICIN was able to listen to these for hours to access his subconscious, which he then converted to the spoken word rap which helps form the main nerve centre of PRIMAVERA. A kind of isolation tank for the ears, if you will. I ignore my subconscious as it often scares me, but I’m glad to see others facing theirs so fearlessly. The music is described as ‘Post-Rave’, which I though was the place everyone hung out at 6am listening to Portishead smoking cigarettes in corners, but is actually more like a series of atmospheric dub experiments with some blissed out club excursions thrown in to keep those with unstroked chins interested.
“BOLT CROPPERS” kicks the album off and sets the expectations immediately, switching between earthy drones, a house groove and jarring shards of distortion and expecting us to jump through these high velocity hoops, which we do. The vocals are given as much reverb as the loops, and they mostly act as an extra layer to the song, flitting in and out, providing cryptic quotes from the inner recesses of the human mind then being like peace out, disappearing into the swirling abyss of sound.
The switch between club sounds and minimalism is a feat PRIMAVERA pulls off a few times to great and disorientating effect. “BUTTERFLIES” builds on a simple, emotive chord progression and slowly adds a bass throb and some organic percussion, building to a euphoric crescendo. The track is interspersed with recordings of the roosters in the Spanish mountains, which seems like the place to go for some good authentic self-discovery. If you’re looking to get some proper self-discovery, the Spanish mountains sound like the place to do it.
“INPATIENTS” uses the reverb loops beautifully, drawing out sedated organ notes while MEDICIN takes central spot, singing and drawling an elegy to the young, lost souls seeking an answer to a question they forgot. “THE LANGUOROUS GIANT” uses a retro 8-bit melody and driving beat with splintered synths echoing somewhere in the digital distance to stick some damn aviators on this album and give it a chance to chill before the final stretch. PRIMAVERA could be described as a “sound collage” by pretentious people, so that is how I choose to describe it. Many different ideas are explored, many for only a fleeting moment, taking the idea of a musical journey on a musical journey.
The album closes with its most explicitly dub reggae number “LOVE BITES AND BLISTERS”. The vocals rasp and croon their way through a stream of consciousness ode to the benefits of a little reflection, a surgical scan of hopes, nightmares, aspirations, cutting through the illusions we hide behind with surgical precision.
“I am fully aware of my insecurities, how about you?
To get to the black, you must first cut through all the blue”
PRIMAVERA is a study of the subhuman brain with an electronic pulse which happens to be very danceable. Is this the only way to distract us from the horrors which lurk in the shadows of the human mind? Possibly. Hopefully MEDICIN will continue to hurl music which fits this very specific market down from his Andalucian mountain studio with the regularity. Buy the album here to encourage him.
Connect with MEDICIN: Bandcamp
