[Physics]

Signifiers can send all the wrong signals just as often as they can send the right ones. There’s a delicate balance between enticement and giving it all a way. Resident Los Angeles android, [PHYSICS], rides that line and then some on his first LP, Spectramorphic Iridescence. Glazed electronics and polymorphic beats run through wetware enhancements left behind by future civilizations. This music is black ice for all the hackers, ready to fry circuits from the inside and hardwire your dreams.

Even with the neuron-popping hooks from opener “Anodyne Dream” or the crystalline “Isosceles Trapezoid” acting like sandman for your brain, there’s a dark undercurrent all throughout Spectramorphic Iridescence. Death-march rhythms snake through “Emerald Forest,” adding an extra sinister layer to all the cryptic stabs. As it bleeds deftly into “The Keep,” this is the ghost trapped in the machine, tortured into obsolescence. [PHYSICS] continues pounding the electricity, waiting for the last voice to drown beneath the bloated, cybernetic waves.

Reverance is left behind while genetically-altered corridors fill with spies, pushing everything to a frenetic pace. Moments of sonic ecstasy filter in when they can, though, finding heavy tranquility cycles with “Realization” and album closer, “Ultimate L.” It’s over-the-top, sugary synthetics laced with all aural opiates you need. “Ultimate L,” especially, achieves maximal catharsis through countless layers of slowly evolving tones. It’s grossly beautiful.

[PHYSICS] have crafted an album steeped in cyberpunk lore, complete with neon death rays and jacked-in viruses. Spectramorphic Iridescence weaves a singular narrative through thoughtful sequencing and impressive songwriting. Before the end it manages to sing its dystopian hymns like a mythic artificial intelligence finally freed from its VR prison.