Drifting, hanging, holding. Hoping, seeking, searching. And then finding. Mark Van Hoen's ninth album as Locust is a cosmic whisper, a tender touch, where candid songwriting commingles with the afterimage of trip-hop and jungle. Across eight tracks, spectral melodies dance between languid breakbeats, and a formless murmur drifts through the ether, seeking a common thread.

Layered in strata, "The First Cause" reveals itself anew with each listen. Delicate tones share space with bass weight. Drums crunch, and rhythms cascade. Voices loop and intone, bodiless. What at first seems melancholy, you may later find reoriented—toward promise. We seek solace in each other, and we seek solace in sound. Kinship isn't easy to come by. When a record offers its kind embrace to us as this one does, without reservation, we should take heed.