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Tuesday 10 October 2023

Indigenous State Of Mind

One of last year's highlights was Boxheater Jackson's full length album We Are One, released on Mighty Force. Almost a year to the day later Boxheater has followed it with a second one. Indigenous State Of Mind is an eleven track, fully realised piece of work inspired by Vernon's travels and encounters. The album starts and finished with spoken word and chanting, Boxheater's spiritual world and search for connections and a simpler way of life setting the widescreen parameters of the album. Track two, The Divine Opening, flows in with tribal drumming, shakers and bone flutes along with long synth chords. The Speed Of Light Is Changing (New Earth Mix) continues the trip, a voice guiding the way forward as Boxheaters' acid house begins to work its way in, stripped down and minimal but rich and full sounding, thumping dance music for dark rooms. Gotta Find A Way! (Living My Truth Mix) is ten minutes of kick drum, percussion and synth squiggles, laser beam simplicity and dancefloor dynamics. 

This is Star Nation Connect (118 BPM Mix), track eight, a heady blend of proto- house and indigenous prayer, kick drum and ritual, the gradually increasing intensity of the synthlines counter balanced by the calmness of the voice. 

By the time track ten ten arrives, Mother Earth Connection (The Red Blooded Truth Vocal Mix), the sense of being swept along by the album is real. The voice on Mother Earth Connection asks the listener to travel back to a time when the people lived off the land, Boxheater's marriage of 21st century acid house and the wisdom of the First Nations becoming a full journey and as the album ends with another prayer, a circle too. Big Vern was one of the Rotters Golf Club crew, someone who benefitted from Andrew Weatherall's generosity and Andrew's phrase Gnostic Sonics fits this album perfectly. Buy it on CD or digitally at Bandcamp

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