MONé’s Debut Album ‘Lucid Dreams’ Moves Between Techno, Breakbeats & Industrial Noise

Sooraj Sivadas aka MONé's debut album 'Lucid Dreams' is laced through and through with extremely hard-hitting kicks and soft pads, and everything in the distance between the aforementioned two's visceral and ethereal extremes is filled with sounds that fizzle and distort.

The first proper musical opening on the album, 'Cornucopia' (the preceding actual opener 'Whisper' serves more as an ambient skit explaining the album's concept and title with a voice recording), introduces this sonic world best as it starts with the reverberating expanse of deep techno before its spaces get filled with a deluge of atonal synth, metallic textures and the buzzing reactions between the two.

The Kerala-rooted producer-DJ combines metallic, machine-like precision in drums with glitchy, swaying percussive sounds on 'Sanctuary' and 'Starseed', or, more often, the syncopation of breakbeats on tracks like 'Kill Time' and 'Therefore I Am'. The combination brings both warmth and coldness while operating in the dark bass-heavy echelons of dance music around techno and beyond. 'Kill Time' even hints at dubstep with its half-time sway and low-pressure basslines before surprising with the breakneck rhythmic onslaught of drum 'n' bass. Both qualities carry over to the album's most hypnotic number 'Stand By', a highlight on the 11-track record, which nearly steps into trance territory with its immersive pulsating textures, were it not for the surprises of the breakbeats and industrial percussion.

Evidently, it is a record with multiple influences and MONé's maximalist streak does continue. However, none of the 11 tracks leaves the sonic world built across the album or puts its outlined concept (through the starting track and album title) into question. 'Lucid Dreams' is an undoubtedly cohesive journey just for someone with the apetite to revel in the intensity and energy that it has to offer.

Listen to the album below and head to MONé's artist profile for more.